Herald LETTER: Smarter rail solutions needed By Robert Gibbons WHEN I was the general manager of Newcastle City Council, the option I saw for the rail corridor was a very different one to what is happening. In the 1880s Commissioner [Edward Miller Gard] Eddy wanted to build a triangular platform at Broadmeadow, where there is room to build a proper upper/lower and sideways interchange. Not many know that that works at one place in metro Sydney. Broadmeadow would be a very different place, close to the stadiums and with new urbanisation and jobs. Then buses could be restructured to properly serve the home-destination combinations of modern Newcastle. That had happened in Wollongong. They would not run in linear corridors as much as in a web pattern as in Zurich. The Rail, Tram and Bus Union declined to help me. About 1100 empty buses went up and down Hunter Street every day. A smaller number would use the rail corridor but they stop and start fast and thus people corridors could be created between Honeysuckle and Hunter Streets west, which would be reduced in width and regenerated as a shopping strip a la Willoughby Road in Crows Nest. Trams would cost much more than buses to do a lesser job. Stopping trains at Wickham is half-baked. Thats another stub line to be closed in future. The taskforces were dominated by developers and there was a lack of vision. The corridor must not be developed lest the East End further withers. Revival of Newcastle depends on smarter solutions. Robert Gibbons, Former NSW Ministry of Transport executive director planning theherald.au/story/2786062/letter-smarter-rail-solutions-needed/?cs=311
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 09:01:01 +0000
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