The State Government has announced the extension of the new Sydney Metro service from Chatswood to Bankstown.
There will be a new station at Crows Nest plus stations at North Sydney, Barrangaroo and Martin Place.
Travel tomes between the city and Chatswood are expected to improve by 10 minutes.
The planned station at Artarmon has not been dropped. Also, they have still to decide on a station at Sydney University or Waterloo.
The biggest benefit of the extension of the Metro beyond Chatswood to the city is the relief this should bring to overcrowding on the Chatswood stations when the Metro commences.
Chatswood West Ward History 
Our President writes: The Sydney Metro project intends to construct two railway tunnels from Chatswood to Sydenham, using two tunnel boring machines, starting south of Chatswood station. To provide a site for assembling the boring machines,receiving the crushed rock excavated from the tunnels,and truck loaders for rock disposal, and site management, the Metro intend to acquire the whole of the block between Pacific Highway and the railway,and between Mowbray Road and Nelson Street. They will also need to widen the railway property for 250 metres north of Nelson Street.
We hope that the work area will be enclosed in a soundproof building like the one used at Tunks Park for the Sewage Storage Tunnel; an open site as used in the bush site at Delhi Road and Epping Road would be inappropriate for this populated gateway corner.
The Nelson Street Bridge is to be permanently removed, to allow widening of the rail corridor so trains can continue service while two tunnel boring machines are assembled. Nelson Street will become a dead end.
Before that can be done, some land on the NIck Scali side of the intersection of Pacific Highway and Mowbray road intersection must be cleared, to allow the southbound through ,lanes of the Pacific Highway tobe moved eastward,to make room for two right-turning lanes from Pacific Highway southbound into Mowbray Road West. (At present, there is no right turn permitted from the right-hand lane of the Pacific Highway, and this traffic is diverted across the Nelson Street bridge to the Orchard Street intersection with Mowbray Road..).
Following phone conversation with KateThomson Place Manager North Shore , Stake Holder and Community Liaison.Sydney Metro,she sent me the attached email, explaining that reports on technical matters will be released at the same moment as the EIS.
I pointed out to Kate that in our experience with the NOOS, Epping railway, Lane Cove M2 tunnels and Chatswood Station/Interchange projects, variations submitted by residents after release of the EIS were not incorporated, partly due to shortage of time to meet political or builder timetables.The Director-General of Planning in each instance provided his own list of a couple of hundred amendments, which had little overlap with resident’s issues.All these projects had cost over-runs of hundreds of millions of dollars,and excessive operating costs that had to be found by the State after the risk-taking private partners went broke.
I suggested that the problems of construction site acquisition,truck traffic and parking, and procedures for estimating noise and vibration levels in the surrounding community could be explained and acceptable noise boundaries that take into account frequency of service should be chosen by now, and validated by measurements at the similar dive north of Chatswood.I suggested neighborhood noise should be presented,like airport noise, with ANEF boundaries
I think the project would benefit from having discussions with us, especially on aspects that are not already determined, but are urgently needed for the EIS, such as the exact route and the depth of the tunnels below the surface along the length of the route, especially at stations.
There should already be a draft timeline for early site work,such as the Pacific Highway right turn lanes and the closure of Nelson Street bridge.
I would think there should be finished investigations of customer acceptance of stations,railcar fitout, and the strap-hanging at double the angle, and high accelerations, and noise at full speed, and the fare structure in competition with other cars and buses At widely varied fuel prices.
a little of this is on offer in Kate’s penultimate paragraph..
Regards
Jim McCredie
Has this “draft timeline” been publicly released by now, as you indicate:
“There should already be a draft timeline for early site work, such as the Pacific Highway right turn lanes and the closure of Nelson Street Bridge.”
Hi Jim,
Thank you for your time on the phone the other day and your invitation to present to the Chatswood West Ward Committee meeting in February.
We are currently undertaking further technical and environmental studies across the project corridor which will form part of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The EIS is expected to go on public exhibition in mid-2016.
When the EIS goes on public exhibition community members will have the opportunity to comment on topics such as construction impacts, traffic, property requirements, access, vibration, amenity and metro operations as part of this process.
The EIS includes a formal submissions process where the Department of Planning & Environment will seek feedback from the community, businesses, regulators and other interested stakeholders. I have attached a factsheet with details of the approval process. More information is available here https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/understanding-planning/assessment-systems/state-significant-infrastructure.
The project is more than happy to take feedback from your group prior to the EIS process however, we strongly encourage residents and the wider community to make submissions as part of this process.
When the EIS goes on public exhibition we would like to offer your group a tailored presentation on the outcomes of the studies and information on how the project proposes to manage construction locally.
We are more than happy to come and present to your group now however, as we are still in the early planning phase there may be a number of questions we cannot answer as studies are still being undertaken. For example information on noise, traffic, tunnel alignment, rail corridor changes etc.
What we can talk about at an introductory presentation is an overview of Sydney Metro, station locations and construction sites (information available in the project update document – November 2015), metro train concept, timeline and EIS process.
If you are happy for an introductory presentation to be undertaken with your group please let me know and we can arrange a speaker.
Kind regards,
Kate
Kate Thomson
Place Manager North Shore | Stakeholder and Community Liaison
Sydney Metro
Transport for NSW
Has this “introductory presentation” by Metro taken place?
Has West Ward Bytes provided any comment following the mid-2015 consultations at the Dougherty Centre?