3 separate rail lines would connect passengers to St Marys, Schofields, Macarthur, Parramatta, Glenfield, and Liverpool as part of a planned rail interchange station at the Western Sydney Aerotropolis Core according to government plans released earlier this week. A map (seen below) shows a completed Metro Western Sydney Airport extending to Schofields in the North and Macarthur in the South. Meanwhile, the soon to be under construction Metro West would be extended from Westmead out to the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport and then on to the Aerotropolis Core. Finally, the South West Rail Line would be extended from the current terminus at Leppington through to the Aerotropolis Core.
Another map (below), showing all of Greater Sydney, is the first to show the Eastern extension of Metro West from the Sydney CBD to La Perouse and a new metro line connecting Randwick to Kogarah via the Kingsford Smith Airport at Mascot. Together with an extension of both ends of Sydney existing single metro line from Tallawong to Schofields and from Bankstown to Liverpool, this represents a total of 4 metro lines, built over a total of 11 stages.
Of these stages, Metro North West has been completed and opened (2019), Metro City and South West is currently under construction (set to open in 2024), and two stages will begin construction later this year – Metro Western Sydney Airport (set to open in 2026) and Metro West (set to open in 2030). Indicative timelines have been given for two other stages, with an extension of Metro West out to La Perouse (potentially opening in 2041) and a new metro from Randwick to Kogarah (potentially opening in 2056). There is no indication of when the remaining five stages will be built: one from Westmead to the Aerotroplis Core, one on each end of Metro Western Sydney Airport, and one on each end of the current line at Tallawong in the North and Bankstown in the South. Nor is there any indication on timing for an extension of the Sydney Trains South West Line from Leppington to the Aerotropolis Core.
The new Metro Western Sydney Airport will feature shorter trains: initially 3 carriage trains which will eventually lengthen to 4 carriages. This compares to the standard 8 carriage trains across the Sydney Trains network and 6 (later to be extended to 8) carriage trains on Sydney Metro. However, the station designs released as part of the Environmental Impact Study show station platforms of approximately 200m, enough for an 8 carriage train. While this would be logical within the Aerotropolis section, which will share stations with the longer 8 carriage trains of Sydney Metro and Sydney Trains, this remains the case in other stations which only run Metro Western Sydney Airport trains, such as St Marys Station shown below.
Trains on this new metro line would initially operate at a frequency of 12 per hour during the peak, but could eventually be scaled up to 20 per hour. The journey from St Marys to the Aerotropolis Core would take 20 minutes, while a journey from St Marys to the Airport Terminal would take 15 minutes.
The Aerotropolis Core Station itself would end up functioning as a major interchange point. Much like Epping, Chatswood, Strathfield, or Wolli Creek function now.
The EIS is on exhibition at the NSW Planning website. Members of the public are able to make submissions until 2 December 2020.
Commentary: The rise of Western Sydney’s new CBD
The Western Parkland City is still unnamed and, with the exception of an under construction airport that is still half a decade away from opening, remains mostly a collection of paddocks and rural properties. However, it is set to get the transport infrastructure it needs to begin building the next CBD in Sydney’s West. This new metro line is needed, not to service the new airport and its passengers, but for the new city that will pop up around the airport.
That key point is often missed.
Few passengers will want to take a 15 minute train to St Marys and then change for a long 50 minute train journey into the Sydney CBD. Eventually, once the airport is big enough, the metro out to Westmead can be further extended to the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport and the Aerotropolis Core. Extending the South West Line to provide a rail connection to Glenfield and Liverpool is a quick and easy addition that will cement this new city as a major transport interchange.
But with this location currently vacant, now is the time to think big. A decade ago the Australian Government released its High Speed Rail study that found that a HSR line from Melbourne to Brisbane via Sydney would cost upwards of $100bn and that a third of this cost would be tunnelling through built up cities. The portion of the line running through Sydney, in particular, was responsible for heavily inflating this price tag.
Whether or not a HSR line is built on Australia’s East Coast, this new major interchange presents a rare opportunity for the Government: it should reserve a corridor to and from the Aerotropolis Core and space for a station box next to this interchange. Doing so now is cheap, and if it means avoiding tens of billions of dollars in tunnelling costs by allowing passengers to continue into the Sydney CBD on an express metro via Parramatta, then it may prove to be a even bigger financial boon. For those travelling to other parts of the city, direct connections will also be available in other directions.
And if it doesn’t end up needing the land, it can always be sold off in future for a tidy profit. But the time to act is now.
Transport Sydney 