Re: [AUS] Radio forum on public transport

["Bradley Torr" <btorr@bigpond.nospam.com>]

Leif <leif.hanlen@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au> wrote in article
<3795CF8C.9A7D7F0@studentmail.newcastle.edu.au>...
> 
> > Uh-oh, the good old anti-westie sentiment raises its ugly head again...
> 
> :o)
> Sorry... :o)

Apology accepted :-)

> But would you not agree that the "planning" is mostly of the line of
> thought: "how fast can I get this road to get me out of the city" The
> shape of the suburbs is a really nice fan - spreading out and out with
> almost no interconnection.

The Sydney is shaped like a big fan as you say (another analogy I would
have used would have been 'big squashed-out spider'). Sydney's planning is
based on the Rasmussen plan, where existing corridors are upgraded a
little, no new corridors are added and development is restricted to those
corridors, resulting in the fact that you have about four 'spider's legs'
(one stretching to the SW, one to the W, one to the N and one to the S)
stretching from the central mass of suburbs. The roads and PT services in
between these 'legs' haven't been upgraded.... which means, to get from,
say, Campbelltown to Sutherland, or Liverpool to Blacktown, one must take
crappy rural roads. There really needs to be two major things out here in
the west for things to work better - the proposed M8 (Western Sydney
Orbital) and a ring railway. But the Feds aren't gonna build any ring road
until 2015 (and then only if Badgerys Creek Airport is built) and as for a
ring railway, things are happening slowly...... VERY slowly.......

> The sprawl is such that it's nigh on impossible to get around the place
> unless you are travelling in a direct line toward or away from the city
> centre. (or have a car). It was for this very reason that I bought my
> first car.

My parents bought me a beat-up old bomb when I got my P's, not only as a
present, but because for a guy from the western suburbs and going on to
university, it was a necessity. There is no way I would have been able to
go to university (and UNSW isn't really on a major rail line), get a decent
part time job, etc. using PT alone.

> This is what I was referring to.
> Unless you want to go directly toward the city, you've not got much
> hope... and the late night options are pretty dismal..

Unlike in Melbourne, the Nightride buses run every night of the week, and
they correspond sort-of to the main rail lines.... they're OK, but then
again, only for getting TO and FROM the city to the suburbs.....

Regards,
Bradley.