Village Voice News - Community - Mapping a possible future for rail

A stock-standard image for thousands of this city's commuters, the Sydney train network map was creatively re-imagined for the future in this version by Sydney lawyer (and former urban planner) Bernard Ng.

Mr Ng said his map was drawn to illustrate his ideas about how the Sydney transport system should be, and not "for the purpose of lobbying for new train lines".

In Mr Ng's version, the south-eastern suburbs get a new line from Central, passing through Surry Hills, Centennial Park and Kensington, before branching off to either Coogee Beach (via UNSW and Randwick) or Maroubra Beach (via Kingsford and Maroubra Junction).

Another new line connects Central to Bondi Junction via Darlinghurst and Paddington, while the current Eastern Suburbs line gets continued on until Bondi Beach.

The map also anticipates a light rail system connecting the current Mascot railway station through to Central, via Victoria Park, while another light-rail line from Museum enables travel to Bronte Beach.

Mr Ng said the idea of a line to Maroubra and Coogee was his, and not based on any government study.

"That said, the idea is not, in my view, completely 'pie in the sky' stuff," he said.

"The Eastern Suburbs is a densely populated area without any form of rapid, high-capacity transit network.

"Buses can only go so far, and while the buses for the Eastern Suburbs aren't too bad (they are frequent and cover almost every pocket of population), I think we should, as a 'world city', aim for world-class transport networks."

Such extensions have been mooted before. Indeed, the original plan for the Eastern Suburbs railway had the line terminating at Kingsford, after stops at Edgecliff, Woollahra, Bondi Junction, Charing Cross, Frenchmans Road, Randwick and the University of NSW. These plans were curtailed due to cost, and even an alternative plan to extend the line to Bondi Beach was shelved.

For that reason, Cronulla remains the only beach in Sydney which is directly accessible by train.

In Mr Ng's map, however, rail travel to Maroubra, Coogee, Bronte and Bondi beaches would be possible.

"By improving public transport access to the beaches of the Eastern Suburbs, I think we are bringing the coast within easy access to more Sydneysiders, which is a wonderful thing.

"Also, many of Sydney's beaches, including Bondi, Coogee, Bronte and Maroubra, have significant problems with a lack of parking and roads not coping with weekend traffic.

"Trains and light rail take cars off the road, improving local amenity for the benefit of the local residents as well as the city as a whole."

The entirety of Mr Ng's future-anticipating map can be found online at http://people.reed.edu/~reyn/CityRailNetworkv413r1.jpg