Having a look at the City of #Sydney 's new draft Access Strategy that was doing the media rounds this week: https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision-setting/your-feedback-updated-access-strategy-action-plan

A few thoughts:

- #SydneyMetro west extension to Zetland by 2030 is completely unrealistic, unless the government has a secret fully actualised plan to deliver it up their sleeve. The rest of it, upon which construction is underway, is due to open in 2030 and even that seems questionable if Minns is planning on throwing more intermediate stations in the mix (which, as an aside, I fully support).

- The emphasis on zero emissions buses is dumb! Yes they're great, but converting burwood, kingsgrove and Leichhardt depots to be zero emission should not be the number one priority for #PublicTransport. More, frequent services will do more for climate change, mode share and urban amenity than retiring diesel and gas buses early to make the fleet fully electric. Give it time!

- I love the emphasis on the need to 'tactically' implement street redesigns RIGHT NOW. The NSW government has a terrible track record on reallocating street space after opening a Big New Motorway so it's great to see the City pushing the issue. Claim the space for people and PT and then we can work out the cutesy pavers and public art displays later.

- The report has a weird mix of urgency (both good and bad, see above) and incredibly long timeframes. I don't want Oxford Street to be a ped friendly destination precinct corridor in 2050, I want it now. You can widen footpaths, put in outdoor seating, add bike lanes and have high volume transit lanes installed in one day with paint and bollards. it would be nice to see the mid-range timeframes be a bit tighter.

- Love the energy but it is extremely jarring to consider that the same organisation telling us we need to allocate more street space to pedestrians installed those awful pointless ad-screens on busy footpaths in the last 12 months. Do as I say not as I do?

That's enough for now. I skimmed so if anything I said is contradicted in the text of the report please do let me know and I'd love to hear any other thoughts!

#Urbanism #Planning #transit

Some interesting developments are underway for Sydney's future #PublicTransport system.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-13/sydney-metro-city-southwest-cost-blowout/102215508

the ABC covered Minns' press conference on the new 'independent review' into the #SydneyMetro but of more interest to me is this tweet from the ABC journo who wrote the article, Isobel Roe.

I guess it didn't make the article because it is speculative 'pending the review', but the notion that changing stations location on #MetroWest is on the cards is big news.

Given that the planned stations are mostly/all under construction, this would most likely mean additional new stations. This would add to the cost of the project but could be used to increase the value of the project, particularly if the state can profit off the increasing land values.

I wrote about the missed opportunity of too few stations on Metro West a few years back ( https://jedsetter.com/assessing-the-impact-of-metro-west/ ) and I'll be watching closely to see how this one plays out!

I missed these in January, but if you've been wondering what the implications of the different specs between the existing #Sydney #metro line and the future Western Sydney Airport #WSA metro line are (you know that you have!) look no further:

https://thestrategicweek.com/2023/01/14/sydney-why-have-one-metro-system-when-you-can-have-two-or-more-part-1/

Well look a tiny bit further; there's also a part 2.

#publicTransport #SydneyMetro