Another report has emerged about Western Sydney’s “woefully inadequate” public transport, which is under siege from unrelenting immigration-fueled population growth. From The Daily Telegraph:
…there has been a huge surge in the number of people in Blacktown local government area taking the train — 2434 more people in 2016 compared to 2011, according to the latest Census data. This was the sixth-biggest uptake nationally…
Deloitte’s Shaping Future Cities: Designing Western Sydney report says the region has 28 per cent more workers than jobs available, with official projections indicating 140,000 more commuters would be using the region’s already congested transport links to the city by 2041.
To meet demand, Deloitte analysis reveals western Sydney would need 19 new freeways, six new train lines, or 1700 more buses to transport workers to jobs in the east…
Blacktown Council has consistently lobbied to improve public transport in Western Sydney.
“We have been advocating for the extension of the Sydney Metro North West from Rouse Hill through Marsden Park, the northern suburbs of Mount Druitt and to Western Sydney Airport,” Blacktown mayor Stephen Bali said.
“It is also essential that public transport be established in the employment areas of Rouse Hill, Marsden Park, the Western Sydney Employment Area and the Western Sydney Priority Growth Area”…
Blacktown Mayor and MP Stephen Bali said public transport infrastructure in Western Sydney was “woefully inadequate”.
“There are now 350,000 people in Blacktown City and this will grow to 520,000 all being forced to queue at 1860s stations,” he said.
“Many of Blacktown’s suburbs, including suburbs to the north of Mt Druitt, don’t have convenient access to public transport services for residents to connect to places of employment, education and medical services.
“Marsden Park, which is a major residential and employment hub, also suffers from poor public transport as public transport services are either non-existent or do not offer a viable alternative to car usage.
“The shortfall in convenient public transport services is forcing commuters onto the roads, where they are being slugged by tolls and making our already clogged roads even slower”…
Mayor Bali said residents of Willmot, Shalvey, Bidwill, Hassall Grove, Oakhurst, Blackett, Lethbridge Park Ropes Crossing, Tregear, Emerton, Dharruk, Hebersham, Plumpton, Glendenning, Dean Park, Colebee, Shanes Park, Minchinbury, Eastern Creek, Huntingwood, Arndell Park and Prospect were “especially disadvantaged” by the lack of close or convenient access to rail services…
An online poll by the Blacktown Advocate showed a shortage of commuter carparking was front-of-mind for many public transport users…
Department of Planning forecasts 13,600 new homes will be built in Blacktown LGA in the next five years, making it the third-largest supplier of Sydney housing to 2021.
The NSW Government’s own population projections have Sydney’s population ballooning by more than 1.7 million people over the next 20 years on the back of mass immigration:
With Western Sydney expected to take the lion’s share of new arrivals:
So clearly, the public transport situation will get much worse.
But wait, it’s not just trains, buses and roads that are being crush-loaded, but Western Sydney’s schools as well.
Back in June, the Daily Telegraph reported that Sydney’s schools will be flooded with thousands of extra students, requiring 50 new schools to be built over the next two decades to cope with the influx, mostly in the city’s west. And in September, the Daily Telegraph reported that Southwest Sydney schools are bursting under the sustained population deluge:
The number of children aged 0 to 17 in southwest Sydney has swelled by more 6300 in the past five years.
Chester Hill High School has 25 demountable classrooms in use – one of the highest numbers in the state.
At Bonnyrigg Heights Public School, students have spilt into an astonishing 23 demountable classrooms in order to fit.
Bonnyrigg High School students are also making use of 22 demountables, while Fairvale High School and Dalmeny Public School both have 20 demountables.
All of this, yet again, highlights Australia’s dysfunctional population ponzi in action.
The federal government’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ program has committed to an intake of around 200,000 permanent migrants a year ad infinitum:
These extra migrants – which overwhelmingly will choose to settle in Sydney and Melbourne – will need basic services like schooling, not to mention additional economic infrastructure and housing.
Now wonder, then, that Sydney-born residents are leaving the city, making way for the relentless torrent of migrants:
The NSW Government should tap the federal government on the shoulder and demand that it lower the immigration intake, in turn relieving pressure on public services, infrastructure and housing.
Why not seek to remove the demand pressures causing the overcrowding in the first place?
