Michael Richardson M.P. Member for the Hills

2020

Part Four

2020/A Liberal Vision Page - 26.

3.1.4    Light Rail

Light rail, which can carry up to 25,000 passengers per hour, occupies less land, is more flexible, more frequent and significantly cheaper to build than heavy rail. The NSW Department of Transport estimates a capital cost per person per year of $480 for light rail and of $328 for buses.⁶ A French study cited by the DOT showed seat costs of $4.88c/km offered for standard buses; $3.95c/km for articulated buses; and $3.1 9c/km for a tramway, although as for heavy rail the economics are highly dependent on loadings. It is 57 per cent more expensive to operate a tramcar than it is a bus, so an LRV needs to function at near-capacity to be more cost-effective than a bus, a bus priority system or even a busway.


Light rail has substantial environmental benefits over buses, and it is these its proponents find especially attractive. It also provides, according to consultants Denis Johnstone and Associates, greater confidence for investors because of its fixed track characteristic". Light rail systems are operating in or proposed for dozens of cities in Europe, Asia and North America, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Dallas, Portland, San Diego, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Bonn, Essen, Frankfurt, Hanover, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Manchester, Nantes, Paris, Grenoble and Lausanne. Trams, abandoned in 1961, are about to return to Sydney in the shape of the new light rail system servicing Pyrmont and Ultimo.


Most light rail systems operate on standard rail gauge (1435mm) tracks, using 600-750DC. A major advantage of light rail over heavy rail is that it can operate without expensive track circuited signalling systems. On a light rail system, signalling is only required in tunnels and where line of sight is restricted. The tracks can be laid on existing roads, although given the chaotic state of Windsor Road during the morning peak-hour any system connecting Rouse Hill and Parramatta would have to have its own dedicated corridor.


Like buses, light rail can pick up and set down almost anywhere. Grades can be double those applying to heavy rail (up to 1 in 10) and curves six times sharper (to 20m radius), cutting construction costs. Light rail can operate as multiple units, achieving much higher carrying capacities than buses except where those buses operate on dedicated busways. For passengers, LRVs are smoother and more comfortable than buses. Overseas, expansion of existing systems has encouraged greater use of public transport. k should be noted, however, that costs rise exponentially when the tracks are put underground (as in Los Angeles).

Figure Nine: Artists impression of the new Pyrmont light rail system

¹⁶ NSW Dept of Transport, Light Rail - Its Evolution and Potential for NSW, 1992, p.11



Not all light rail systems are derivative of trams. Vancouver 5 Skytrain, for example, is a futuristic looking system which can be routed above, on and below ground. A sophisticated system of this type should not be excluded from consideration for the Hills.


Light rail would attractive significant patronage among those whose primary destination was Parramatta (ie no mode change), sufficient for private consortia to become involved in financing, although overseas experience has shown full cost recovery is unlikely.

RECOMMENDATION EIGHT: The NSW Government should take immediate steps to acquire a cost-effective light rail corridor connecting the RHDA and Parramatta, and plan to implement a light rail system by the year 2007.

2020/A Liberal Vision Page - 28.

4.0. Applying the principles of the "new urbanism" to the North-West Sector

Since the 1960s. most new developments in Sydney have been based on the curvilinear plan first used in Glendale Ohio. in the 1850s and which perhaps appropriately enough was based on the layout of a cemetery. Straight streets, it was felt at the time, suggested "eagerness to press forward, without looking to the right hand or to the left," while curved lines suggested "leisure, contemplativeness and happy tranquillity." But it took solid post-War growth and the accompanying increase in car ownership for this 19th Century idea to be widely adopted in this country.


Curvilinear suburbs which now spread their maze-like tendrils across the drabness of the Cumberland Plain included such monuments to planning genius as Whalan, Green Valley, Dharruk. Tregear, Macquarie Fields and Claymore. Even in suburbs as upmarket as Cherrybrook, West Pennant Hills and Glenhaven, grid plans, common in Sydney before World War Two and throughout the 1950s, have largely been abandoned.

Figure Ten: Curvilinear sub-divisions are isolated
from one another, and internally.

These are suburbs that are isolated, not just from one another, but within themselves. The deliberate separation of shops, offices and housing, and the absence of straight lines on the ground discourages walking. Places only 400 metres apart as the crow flies may be more than two kilometres and 15 minutes distant in peak hour traffic. A classic example in The Hills is Castlewood Estate, only 100 metres walking distance from Highs Road, West Pennant Hills, but a circuitous journey by road of several kilometres involving four sets of traffic



29 2020 / A Liberal Vision


lights. Like Alice in Through the Looking Glass, if you want to get from Castlewood to Hills Valley you must set out in the opposite direction.


The lack of connectivitv and the difficulty with providing public transport links have created their own sets of problems. Improved amenity for some residents (the absence of through traffic) means frustrating delays for all. The four-stage street hierarchy - freeways, arterial roads, collector roads and minor streets - directs traffic away from suburban streets onto major roads which clog up at peak-hour. Public transport is difficult to provide because of the limited connectivity and heavy congestion. Traffic today crawls at a snail's pace in the morning along collector roads such as Aiken Road and Oakes Road in West Pennant Hills Valley. Children living only a kilometre from their closest high school have to be bused 5km each way, at significant environmental cost.


These problems are well-known and understood by planners at both Hornsby and Baulkham Hills Councils. Yet they are strangely reluctant to strike out in a new direction. New estates from Oakhill to Kellyville replicate the mistakes of the past, which are compounded by the doctrinaire strictures of urban consolidation - population densities of up to 15 dwellings/ha, streets so narrow they can't accommodate a garbage truck, let alone a bus, and that are little more than wall-to-wall garage doors.

Figure 11: Urban consolidation has led to solid walls of dual
occupancies on one side of the street, detached houses the other.

2020/A Liberal Vision Page - 30.

The mantra of urban consolidation is 'freedom of housing choice". According to the doctrine, every area should have a mix of residential types - free-standing homes, dual-occupancies, townhouses, flats - to provide for all housing needs, from first home-buyers to empty-nesters down-sizing. Indeed, this is also a tenet of the new urbanism. David Brown writes: "A diverse mix of housing types allows a variety of age and income groups to live together in a neighbourhood¹⁷," without questioning whether this might be desirable or even wanted.


The objectives of the Kellyville/Rouse Landscape and Urban Design Strategy are to promote more efficient use of land, greater housing choice, increased housing affordability, and higher housing densities. Why? As Patrick Troy argues¹⁸, there is no evidence of any unmet demand for smaller dwellings. Most couples don't move into a townhouse or flat as soon as their children leave home. While social engineers may feel these people are squandering resources which should be used by growing families, if Hills couples want to remain in their four-bedroom freestanding homes until they are too infirm to maintain them they should be allowed to do so. Gardens help keep many retired people fit and active well into their eighties; when they do move, it is generally to a retirement village or supported accommodation. Take away the gardens, and we may well find our healthcare costs rising.


We should adapt, not merely adopt, new ideas from abroad. Australia, Troy notes, unlike much of the rest of the world, has "sufficient land for every household which desires it to have a private garden without significant reduction in the land available for farming or for the protection of bushland. There is no need for people to endure a reduction in their standards of space for



¹⁷ Back to The Old Neighbourhood The Weekend Australian, November23 1996.
¹⁸ Op. Cit., p.13

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