Start the Change

Maybe you would be able to restore the bus services to the bankstown area which the
labor government so kindly removed from us. We cannot shop at our local shopping centre
because our bus service for the past 40 odd years was cancelled by the labor government.
Also I wont travel on trains late afternoon or evening for safety reasons. The people in
the western suburbs of sydney miss out all the time. pamela

I know smoking costs lives but will you explore debates where limited tabacco advertising could be used to save lives elsewhere - to create better hopitals , transport etc

What about greater off-road cycleways across metropolitan Sydney particularly the greater West LGAs of Blacktown and Penrith?

As a typical swinging voter and a young tertiary educated individual, I have tested and found existing cycleways to provide a viable form of transport.

There is, however, one cyclist either killed or injured, on average, every week in this country as a result of cycling in traffic.

Off-road cycleways are the answer!

Look at Fairfield City Council, an ALP controlled council, and compare it to the City of Penrith, also Labor controlled.

The City of Fairfield has an extensive, elaborate, interconnected, network of off-road cycleways, most which run parallel to creeks or railways lines.

The City of Penrith, however, appears to be it's poorer neighbour's cousin, having almost nil off-road cycleways.

As an average cyclist weighing about 94 kilos and being about 191cm in height and riding a simple mountain bike (not a road bike or racing bike), it takes me 2 hours to cycle from Colyton to Padstow, with 90% of the journey accomlished using off-road cycleways. From the M7 cycleway, one takes the connecting cycleway which snakes itself through the City of Fairfield, running parallel to Orphan School Creek, eventually finishing up at the Hume Highway, Carammar at the end of the boundary for the Fairfield LGA. Another off-road cycleway commences at this point which runs through the Bankstown LGA parallel to Georges River and eventually finishes up at Milperra, meaning I spend a maximum of 20 minutes cycling on quiet and local roadsides to arrive at the neighbouring suburb of Padstow.

Barry, we require more interconnecting cycleways.

Jasco (Jason) Kovacevic.
Colyton.

It's 200 years since Governor Macquarie came to Sydney. He was visionary - building towns at Windsor, Liverpool, Campbelltown etc.

He saw the need to cross the Blue Mountains and so he comissioned explorers and the built a road over the mountains to open up the inland.

the RTA, see this as a nonscence , refusing to signpost that the highway goes accoross the mountains to the inland cities and plains here is even one signpost Penrith left straight ahead blank !!

Barry - can you get signs recognising that the western freeway and Great Westerh Highway actually goes to:
Bathurst, Orange, Dubo, Broken Hill, Adelaide and Perth?

we need a six lane highway through to Bathurst Orange

the dual electric rail needs to go to Bathurst Orange

Where is the dual carriage road from Canberra to Bathurst ?

the inland has tracts of cheap land for new cities which is agriculturally marginal where the urban sprawl should be

Where are our high speed rail lines?

we need one from Whynard or St James to Strathfield, an Olympic Park interchange,
Parramatta, Westmead, Blacktowm Penrith,
Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, through to the riverina and Adelaide

this would open up the inland and catch up with Macquarie's vision.

the south coast electric line should be extended to Batemans Bay - providing public transport to the massive development at Sanctuary Point

then from Batemans Bay accross to Canberra
to the Riverina to conect to the above high speed rail

we need a high speed rail to Epping, Hornsby, Gosford, Erina, the Entrance, Toukley,
Warnervale, Wyee, Newcastle, Maitland and onto Tamworth to open up another growth coridor.

Sydney needs a orbital rail from Wollongong to Campbelltown, Camden, Penrith, Richmond, Hornsby, Northern Beaches etc.

the next international airport should be built on the western plains with high speed rail conections to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Broken Hill, Tamworth and Brisbane.

funding could come from selling bonds to super funds so we have an alternative to shares

Roads - reform the traffic committees
a Mayoral Staffer should Chair
a local Member's staffer the Secretary

meetings should be open to the public
at advertised times and places

ALL members of the Traffic Committee should be listed on the Councils website with email addresses

the RTA should build one new grade seperation interchange a year on conjested intersections

replace speed cameras with video to catch dangerous driving

dual carriage roads should be at least 70 and preferably 80 kms per hour

run a 24 hour city to Parramatta via Parramatta Rd bus service every 15 min to midnight then 30 min to 5 am

place a nightrider timetable at the railway square bus stop

introduce half hour night rider services from midnight to 5am

appreciate your promice to build the North West Rail line but please take to to Windsor to link with the Richmond line then take it through the mountains to Bathurst thereby having two links to Bathurst

build a western link to the Central Coast - make the wisemans ferry a dual carriage road with a bridge replacing the ferry through to Warnervale.

let Sydney become a city that can breathe
a city capable of evacuation if every necessary
a city with additional freeways and rail lines
to the inland and northern cities


please build inland cities so Sydney doesn't become a beaches to mountains high rise version of Hong Kong

Sydney was built with an infrastructure for one million people
its cheaper to build new cities
than upgrade every road, water pipe, sewer pipe, electric cable etc

The real issues in improving public transport are getting private cars off the road:
* Our planning should be based on getting at least 25% of private vehicles OFF the road. This would mean we need NO MORE road building - our existing roads and bridges would be adequate. We need a congestion tax in the city.
* Public transport, even at peak times, should enable every passenger to get a seat. We will not get significantly better patronage of public transport while commuting means standing in a crush of people, or even worse miising a bus because it is full (happens often).
* We badly need integrated ticketing - what on earths wrong with the Perth system??
* Above all we need a short and long term INTEGRATED public transport PLAN showing what we are going to do.

And Barry, if you want to get public support, please tell us what you are going to do NOW, not just before the election.