Professional Project: Analysis of Sydney Metro Northwest Project

This professional project provides an in-depth analysis of the Sydney Metro Northwest project, a major railway transport initiative in New South Wales. The paper begins with an introduction outlining the project's context and design structure, focusing on elements relevant to the Urban Design and Corridor Landscape Plan. It then synthesizes the project's context, detailing the integration of the Sydney Metro Northwest with the CityRail network, including new stations, rail lines, and associated infrastructure. The project also examines the statutory and strategic context, including national, state, and local planning policies that shaped the project's design. Furthermore, the project explores alternative solutions to address capacity constraints, such as double-deck trains with increased door numbers and platform upgrades, evaluating their feasibility and cost-effectiveness. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of integrating land use and transport for the project's success.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PROJECT 1
Professional Project
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
In this part, the paper will present a breakdown of the supreme metropolitan planning
context as well as the broad design structure for the project. The paper will concentrate on the
elements of the project that have particular significance to the Urban Design and Corridor
Landscape Plan (UDCLP).
Synthesis
Project Context
Sydney Metro Northwest is a main concern railway transport set-up project for the New
South Wales administration. The Sydney Metro Northwest will be combined with the CityRail
network that comprise eight new stations as well as services covering approximately 23
kilometers rail line running from Epping all the way to Rouse Hill in North West Sydney
(Birdsall, 2015). The Sydney Metro Northwest project will in summary comprise the following:
1. A direct underground that connect to the present Epping to Chatswood rail line at Epping.
2. Eight new rail service and stations include: Bella Vista, Cudgegong Road, Showground,
Cherrybrook, Rouse Hill, Castle Hill, Northwest and Kellyville.
3. An underground section route of 15.5 km for two track railway in a twin tunnel
configuration between Bell Vista and Epping.
4. A 7.5 km section with above ground route from Bella Vista to Cudgegong Road Station
that consists a collection of embankment, viaduct at grade and cutting.
5. Commuter car parking accommodation at Bella Vista, Cudgegong Road stations,
Kellyville, Showground and Cherrybrook.

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6. Service amenities at Chelteranham, and Epping as well as the Sydney Metro Trains
Facility (SMTF) at Tallwong Road Cudgegong.
7. Pedestrians, taxi, bus, cycling access and kiss and ride facilities at all stations.
Statutory and Strategic Context
The statutory and strategic design framework for the Sydney Metro Northwest project
that led to the corridor strategy as well as the successive urban and landscape design include the
2009 national planning agenda of the Council of Australian Government. This strategy plan has
outlined a criteria to make sure that all Australian metropolitan cities have longstanding
strategies to manage progression.
The state and regional planning policies such as the New South Wales (NSW) 2021 plan
where the government invest and allocate budget to deliver the community with public services
by delivering infrastructure. The NSW rebuilding state set-up strategy that pinpoint and
prioritizes delivery of essential public infrastructure like water, transport, telecommunications,
health and electricity. The NSW long-term transport master plan is to provide a framework that
will deliver an integrated modern transport system by determining the objectives of NSW
transport and investment for the next 10 years (Gharehbaghi, & Farnes, 2018). As a result, the
long-term transport master plan acknowledged that by integrating land use and transport it will
be a significant aspect of the design for Sydney Metro Northwest.
Local strategic plan. The Sydney Metro Northwest project has incorporated the local
community objectives. In addition, building of the Sydney Metro Northwest offers an chance to
plan for and shape civilized centers surrounding each of the projected new stations by creating

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well-designed, sustainable and advanced density diverse use environs that are linked by recurrent
rail and bus services (Richardson, 2017).
Alternatives to the System
Even though Sydney Metro system is suitable for Sydney, it seems to be less considerate
about the operation efficiency and more focused on transferring the rail system away from the
Cityrail and the Rail. Nevertheless, with the present capacity constraints problems that Sydney
Metro project intend to remedy is valid but it needs to have an alternative. Some of these
alternatives to ease the capacity constraints on the Cityrail network include use of double deck
trains with six doors for every carriage, upgrade of the city platforms, and establish articulated
trains.
Double deck trains with six doors for every carriage
The present Cityrail rolling stock consists of a double deck with four doors in each
carriage with one pair on each side. This can be substituted by single deck trains consisting of
eight doors on each carriage. Indeed, this will allow passengers to get on and off more quickly,
hence it will reduce the dwell time at stations. Therefore, one probable alternative could be to
retain the double deck trains and increase the number of doors to six. For example, in Paris the
suburban rail network is using these type of trains and its network is nearly the same size to that
of the Cityrail suburban network (Mahjabeen, Shrestha, & Dee, 2013). Although, this would be a
slight reduction in the seat number for each train, but it will still be significantly more compared
to the case with single deck trains. Similar to the metro project proposal, this will need new
rolling stock but not like the metro project it will not cause a big transaction constraint in
switching over from double deck to single deck trains.

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Upgrading the city platforms
Currently, a few stations act as choke points in particular Wynyard and Town Hall. These
stations were designed for a small number of passengers as compared to what they currently
receive. The aspect that have caused this constraints is that they are extremely narrow and short.
The short platform limits the maximum length of trains that can stop at these stations. However,
broadening the platform is almost impossible. The only thing that could done is to develop
platforms on both side of the train and ensure both doors open (Hensher, Truong, Mulley, &
Ellison, 2012). One platform should be designed for boarding and the other for alighting. For
instance, such a system has been developed at Olympic Park station and has been able to handle
thousands of passengers.
How to choose from the Alternatives
To choose of the most appropriate alternatives between upgrading city platforms and
introducing double deck trains with six doors for every carriage is by evaluating the cost and
ease of implementation of the alternative. The appropriate alternative should be the single deck
train with eight doors for every carriage. The single deck trains with eight door will allow
passengers to get off and on in a more quick way hence it save on the dwell time spent at the
stations.

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References
Birdsall, M. (2015). From Metro and Light Rail to Trains and Trams: Exploring Sydney,
Australia's Expansive Public Transit Initiatives. Institute of Transportation Engineers.
ITE Journal, 85(11), 31.
Gharehbaghi, K., & Farnes, K. (2018). Process automation in intelligent transportation system
(ITS). International Journal of Machine Learning and Computing, 8(3), 294-297.
Hensher, D. A., Truong, T. P., Mulley, C., & Ellison, R. (2012). Assessing the wider economy
impacts of transport infrastructure investment with an illustrative application to the
North-West Rail Link project in Sydney, Australia. Journal of Transport Geography, 24,
292-305.
Mahjabeen, Z., Shrestha, K. K., & Dee, J. A. (2013). Rethinking community participation in
urban planning: The role of disadvantaged groups in Sydney metropolitan
strategy. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, The, 9(1), 45.
Richardson, N. (2017). “Making It Happen”: Deciphering Government Branding in Light of the
Sydney Building Boom. M/C Journal, 20(2).