Overview
Sydneysiders, the future isn't so bright that you need to wear shades — it's light, at least as far as public transportation is involved. No one can miss the construction work that has been transforming the CBD in the name of better ways of getting around in the coming future, but it's not the only part of town benefiting from extra infrastructure. In 2023, the city's west will also join the fold.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has revealed the new route anyone going west — or coming from that direction — will traverse, which features 16 stops between Westmead and Carlingford. The 12-kilometre stretch of track will glide through the centre of Parramatta in its travels, will cost a cool $1 billion, and should operate services every seven and a half minutes once it is up and running. Yes, heading out that way is about to become much quicker and easier.
That's the good news. In not so great tidings for anyone needing to visit Sydney Olympic Park and unhappy about the current, far-from-convenient methods of doing so, it's a notable omission among the list of stops, after originally being part of an earlier plan announced in 2015. Now, it's due to be included in the yet-to-be-revealed second stage of the project instead, which doesn't yet have a timeline. Transport Minister Andrew Constance told The Sydney Morning Herald that it will happen, though. "We want to get the station locations right, and the design of the route right," he said. Here's hoping.
Via The Sydney Morning Herald / ABC. Image: Parramatta Light Rail.