Green Square or Black Triangle?
The failure to develop a suitable gateway to the new Green Square railway station was a typical cheap and nasty approach to public transport in Sydney, EcoTransit Sydney President Michelle Zeibots said today.
Construction of a station at Green Square is an important element on the Airport Rail Link proposal, with up to 14,000 trips to be made from/to the station when services commence in late May. The station is also inteneded to be a focus for urban redevelopment, featuring ,mixed use zoning and an increased retail component. Up to 30,000 new residents and 12-15,000 new
jobs are targetted.
Ms Zeibots said there appeared to be a lack of leadership on getting design issues right for the station.
"Nobody has taken control, whether it's the private rail consortium, the Department of Transport, the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, South Sydney Development Corporation or South Sydney Council. All they seem to be worried about at the moment is building a road network in the area that will whizz as many people past the station," she said.
"It's unthinkable that we could spend about a billion dollars on this vital new piece of infrastrcucture and then squib at spending a million or so on the urban design and landscape treatments, advertise the rail service and generally make people feel proud of what it is, after all, the first major addition to Sydney's rail system in over 20 years," said Ms. Zeibots.
"In Sydney government still seems to think that for public transport, near enough is good enough, that a cheap and nasty solution is the way to go," she concluded.