Infrastructure projects such as the Parramatta Light Rail will be a catalyst project for our city, linking the surrounding suburbs to the Capital of Western Sydney, and delivering better access to jobs and education for our community, helping us build knowledge intensive enterprise and innovation hubs.
The NSW Government has identified four potential light rail routes for further investigation.The shortlisted corridors for light rail are:
• Parramatta to Macquarie Park via Carlingford;
• Parramatta to Castle Hill via Old Northern Road;
• Parramatta to Bankstown; and
• Parramatta to Sydney Olympic Park and Strathfield/Burwood.
I am advocating for the route from Parramatta to Macquarie Park via Carlingford, a route also supported by the Lord Mayor of Parramatta City Council, Scott Lloyd, and the Mayor of The Hills Shire Council, Andrew Jeffries.
A route from Parramatta interchange, connecting Camellia to UWS and the new technology precinct at Rydalmere, to Dundas, Telopea, Carlingford, and joining up to Epping and Macquarie Park – delivering a long awaited Parramatta to Epping link.
Connectivity is the key to a dynamic and growing city. Linking our job centres and homes will help drive economic growth and productivity. Close links between knowledge-intensive jobs and universities enhances cross-collaboration between industry and educational institutions across Western Sydney.
I agree with the findings of the 2014 Grattan Institute report into ‘Mapping Australia’s Economy’ identifying that the inter-woven proximity of enterprise and people in cities enhances economic growth and drives prosperity and productivity.
Proximity improves business to business interactions, interactions with competitors and customers, and allows interactions to occur more frequently.
It increases the pool of employees and helps employers and employees alike to ‘make the best use of their skills’.
The report estimates that CBDs generated the highest levels of economic activity - Sydney CBD generated $100 and Parramatta CBD $68 of economic activity per working hour.
These findings emphasise the importance of what we know and how we deploy that knowledge in an ever increasingly knowledge-based economy.
Building infrastructure that integrates the surrounding area into Parramatta’s sphere of influence is vital to growing Parramatta’s economy, creating more jobs and ensuring we continue to provide opportunities to prosper and flourish in Western Sydney.
Building a light rail network with Parramatta as the hub, not only facilitates better access from the surrounding suburbs into Parramatta, but broadens Parramatta’s scope to build its own economic arc, one that could link up with the global economic arc of Sydney.
Connecting Macquarie Park and Macquarie University to Parramatta via a Carlingford Light Rail provides the infrastructure needed to link the Parramatta CBD into the knowledge and industry precinct at Macquarie Park, whilst also bringing better access to a wider variety of jobs to everyone along the transport corridor. Parramatta CBD alone is expected to grow from 50,000 to 100,000 jobs over the next 20 years.
Connecting our brightest students to the cutting-edge knowledge-intensive jobs in Western Sydney is essential to continue developing Parramatta as a world class business hub.
With over 38,000 students at Macquarie University, 14,000 students at UWS Rydalmere and a forecast 10,000 at the new UWS CBD campus, the need for connectivity has never been stronger,
The productivity loss and opportunity costs from excessive commuting have been well documented, and linking up the transport networks along this corridor will create a tremendous benefit for business and residents across this arc.
The Grattan Institute report recommended three key issues that Governments need to respond to:
• Access to a large number of jobs and employers.
• Building transport networks that connect employees and employers.
• Minimising the barriers to accessing the highly productive CBDs.
Building the light rail from Parramatta to Macquarie Park serves to address all three of these concerns, by creating better access to a wider range of jobs in a broader range of areas, whilst opening up the Parramatta CBD access from the North-West and ensuring that employers and employees are able to easily connect across the major business centres in our area.
