Federal Politics

Opting for light rail puts city on track for new opportunity

Mission near impossible ... the proposed light rail is aiming to unclog Sydney's congested transport networks in the CBD.
Mission near impossible ... the proposed light rail is aiming to unclog Sydney's congested transport networks in the CBD. Photo: James Brickwood

The state government's long-term transport master plan opens up a new way of thinking about how people move around our city.

Congestion costs Sydney businesses and residents an estimated $5.1 billion a year, which is projected to reach $8.8 billion by 2021.

People who work in inner city Sydney are the country's greatest users of public transport, with three-quarters arriving by bus, train or ferry.

For the past few years, transport planners have looked to buses as congestion's saving grace. However, our bus network has added to the problem. With a complex system of 192 routes converging on the city, 6000 buses every weekday and up to 1000 in the busiest weekday peak hours, we now have a conga line of slow moving buses edging their way over the Harbour Bridge and up George, York and Elizabeth streets.

The New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, recently said "roads are for people" and I agree - we need to look at the best possible way for people - not just vehicles - to move around our city.

In 2007, the City of Sydney asked international urbanist Jan Gehl to investigate what was needed to revitalise Sydney. Transport plans are often about networks and vehicles. But Gehl took the somewhat revolutionary perspective that cities are about people and that transport networks must serve the people and be about integration.


Once you take that perspective, there are only so many ways you can make the city work. You can't shove people underground for short trips and you can't continue to make thousands of people wait at traffic signals while a few vehicles inch past.

Rather, you must maximise the use of the space you have and you must maximise amenity. In our dense city it's impossible to increase the space we have between buildings to accommodate transport, and so you need to think creatively for the 600,000 people who are in our CBD every day.

Having a city that can grow and can confidently commit to the future is as critical to the people of Penrith as it is to Surry Hills. Without the economic engine of the CBD, the state would lose a quarter of its economic output, as much as the mining industry contributes.

What happens in the city has flow-on effects for the rest of the state and indeed the nation.

Well-functioning transport networks free up time and capital, and public transport is an efficient way of increasing productivity, something Sydney has been falling behind on for more than a decade.

Sydney is continually recognised for its liveability and increasingly for its sustainability but we fall behind on transport - our congestion is deeply frustrating to the people who live and work here, as well as to those who visit.

The government's decision to invest in light rail will transform Sydney - and not just the city centre. By creating a light rail network, which starts in the CBD and that could link up with Green Square, Barangaroo and to Parramatta Road, the government is addressing the decades of inaction that has crippled our state.

This is beneficial to people living outside the city, whose buses will no longer be swamped by huge demand when reaching the last few kilometres of their trip and whose train network will no longer be choked by a single harbour crossing. Buses diverted from the city could be used on desperately under-serviced cross-regional routes.

Adding a second harbour crossing will unlock the capacity of the rail network for decades to come and is a much needed, visionary move for the future of NSW.

Transport is critical to the economy and society. Not only moving people to and from work but to and from opportunity, community connections and social integration. It creates new opportunities.

Closing George Street to vehicles between Bathurst and Hunter will give Sydney the inviting main street it needs to remain commercially competitive and to draw tourists to our city.

World-class retailers such as Apple, Louis Vuitton and Topshop have recently established flagship stores on George Street in anticipation of light rail. This investment will give other businesses the confidence to also invest in the future of our city.

This transport plan shows the City of Sydney and state government can work together to solve our biggest challenges and to rebuild the trust Sydneysiders lost a long time ago in our city's transport.

Clover Moore is the lord mayor of Sydney.