Commuting scenarios
The main Southern Highlands rail passenger network was built in the 1800s and has not changed coverage in line with the spread of dwellings since. Transport is holistic with land use and employment so the issues might appear to be simple but are very strategic.
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The hairy issues within the economics of new regional rail lines are not well-understood in industry and the community. Several major reforms have been proposed:
- Electrification beyond Macarthur (Tim Fischer): logical and relatively easy, distances are about equal to the Blue Mountains’. However, the Highlands should not be just a commuter backwater, it needs to revive like Newcastle
- Wilton station on fast train from Canberra to Badgerys (Wollondilly Mayor Judith Hannan): Govt predicts Wilton will grow to 350,000 over 15 years. This will not happen under market realities, ACT model of Fast Train repeats past mistakes and will fail
- Centennial (Chinese rail entrepreneur): Baird told it the plan for the Illawarra would trigger the "Macarthur Plan", opening the way for the release of land for construction of about 100,000 homes. The group wants to fund the proposed rail link with a levy on new houses in the area of $250/sqm. With rural lots expected to be 800sqm or larger, this would be a per-property levy of over $200,000 (half of the full cost of a plot in Picton or Tahmoor). To make a big project feasible – 100,000 lots would pay some $2.4 billion a year over 30 years. Is there no one in government with commonsense and a slide rule!
Coalition Governments twice negated related taxes on landowners and there is no reason to think Baird and Bairdijiklian managed to change basic capitalist motivations. The lessons of history from the Harbour Bridge and Cumberland County Council include projects which were more equitable and efficient.
In 2009 COAG instructed NSW to prepare a “City Plan” before making any more stupid mistakes. The Federal and State Governments have not got to Step 1. Maldon-Dombarton is needed for national logistics when Sydney runs out of Port Botany capacity.
