Transcription
Back in late 2024, Sydney launched its fourth light rail line, the L4 West and Carlingford line, otherwise known as the Paramata Light Rail. This line would form a key part of the New South Wales government's efforts to solidify Paramata as Sydney's second central business district or CBD. Efforts that seem to be going quite well.
The area is going through a bit of a skyscraper boom, with Parramata now home to the second greatest concentration of office towers in greater Sydney. The light rail's role in this was twofold. Firstly, to signify to developers and investors that the New South Wales government was serious about Paramata by spending a lot of money on a flashy new infrastructure project for the area. And secondly, to provide the area with a high-quality transport line to help transport all these new workers and residents to their new jobs and homes in the precinct.
In that first sense, I think the line has done a pretty good job. Paramea does seem to be booming, and there is a lot of investment into the area, with a report by Your Future Strategy naming Parramata as one of Sydney's top suburbs to watch for growth. However, in that second aspect, things don't seem to be working out quite as well. When we judge the Paramatite Rail as a transport line, its results haven't been quite as good as I think we all would have liked.
Before its launch, it was estimated that around 22,000 trips would be made on the new line each day. But a year on, the actual number is basically half that, with some stops like Rose Hill Gardens only recording an average of 130 passengers each day. These ridership figures are quite disappointing, especially for a city whose other new light rail lines have actually been very successful. Shortly after it launched, the L2 line almost immediately became the third busiest tram line in the country, beating out a lot of far more established tram lines in Melbourne. At that point, the line had only just opened, so I'm sure its patronage is doing even better these days.
That said, I think all of this begs the question: if Sydney did so well with its other light rail lines, what went wrong with the Paramata light rail? A question I think is especially important as work on the line's second phase, that will eventually see it extended to Olympic Park, has been given the green light.
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Taking a look back at that first stage of the Paramatite Rail, and it basically consisted of two sections. The first would run in its own right of way along what used to be the old Carlingford railway line, from Carlingford to Rose Hill Gardens, where the stops are a bit further apart, as they basically mirror the locations of the old Carlingford line stations. After Rose Hill Gardens, the line turns westward to run either next to or in the middle of the street to Paramata Square for an interchange with Paramata Railway Station, before turning northwards to run up through North Paramea and then making a turn back southwards to run through the Westme Hospital precinct for a final stop and interchange at Westme Railway Station.
Along the second street-running section, the stops are generally a lot closer together, and I think that forms one of the first issues holding the line back. Having stops so close together means that obviously the tram is having to stop a lot, and that will make the line run much slower. I also just really don't think there is that much of a benefit to having stops so close. The Fennel Street and Prince Alfred Square stops are a little over 400m apart, which equates to about a 5-minute walk. And that's a pretty typical distance for stops along the street-running part of this line.
The super short stop distances would imply this service is supposed to be for short trips in the Paramea area, but with stops this close, for most people, walking would just be easier and, of course, cheaper. So then, if the line isn't that great for super short trips in the area, then maybe this will be good for people making longer to medium-length trips. And again, while it might make slightly more sense for these sorts of trips over distances that can't easily be walked, the very high stop density can make longer trips just inconveniently slow.
And that all brings me to my next point. Where would people be making these longer trips to? Most of the Paramata and Westmeat precincts were already within walking distance from their respective stations. And the areas around the section that used to be the Caringford line obviously used to be served by that line already. So none of these areas have really gained new public transport access for the first time. I will say that on the old Carlingford line, service was not particularly frequent, so the light rail has definitely been an improvement to transit access in that area. Besides that, though, the only area to really gain rail access for the first time is North Parata, which is good, but not a whole lot for a new transit line.
Ultimately, people traveling to Westme or Paramata wouldn't have much trouble walking to their destination from their existing and well-served train stations, which means the light rail is most useful for getting people to places they can't walk or catch a normal train to, specifically North Paramata and the old Caringford line. But again, this brings me to another issue: the somewhat inconvenient interchange offered by the line, which means that one of the line's more obvious use cases, catching the train into Paramata station and changing for the light rail to go somewhere within the vicinity that's too far to walk, also doesn't often end up making too much sense.
The Westme interchange is fine. The tram stop is very close to the station, but the Parameatter one is a bit less convenient, with passengers needing to make a small but not negligible walk to make the interchange from the train to the tram. Altogether, this means that when I look up directions from Central Station to, say, Prince Alfred Square, a common journey for people going to events in Paramata Stadium, Google Maps estimates it wouldn't make much of a difference if I just walked from Paramata Station or if I changed for the light rail. It is worth noting that when Metro West opens, its Paramea stop will likely offer a slightly more convenient interchange than the current Paramea station does.
Speaking of interchanges, I do of course have to mention that the L4 does not have an interchange with Epping station, which would have been quite an obvious one and would, I think, have made the line a lot more useful. Epping station is not far from the line's current terminus in Carlingford. And if it were built, it would add an interchange with the T9 train line, the M1 Metro line, and the Central Coast and Newcastle intercity line, which would no doubt make the Paramata Light Rail accessible to a way bigger number of people.
Now, what I've been saying may make it sound like the Paramatite Rail has been an absolute disaster. And while its ridership numbers are quite a bit below what they were expected to be, around 12,000 journeys are being made on it each day. So, it's clearly proving useful to some people. I've recently been looking at commute rail systems in the US, and some of those systems, which use much bigger trains, only get about half that much ridership. So, it could definitely be worse.
It's just that when you look at some of the alternative plans for the Paramatite Rail, you see lines that would have addressed a lot of the problems I've mentioned in this video. Notably, the lines on this map, which were the preferred routes for an earlier feasibility study on a Paramat light rail system, extend much further out than what we got, going all the way to Macquarie Park and Castle Hill. This would mean the lines would serve way more areas that don't currently have rail access, unlike the line we got, a lot of which serves areas within walking distance from existing stations, and that would translate to greater ridership.
The stops on this map are also much further apart. From Ventura Road to Churchill Drive or Bulham Hills, for instance, the distance is about 1km, roughly double the typical stop distance on the system we would end up with. So while the stops are still within walkable distances of each other, trams would have been able to run faster and be more useful for longer trips. On top of all of this, there are the interchanges. This proposal has the interchanges at Paramata and Westmeat station, but in addition to those, it also offers interchanges at Eastwood for the T9 train line and Showgrounds, Castle Hill, and Macquarie Park for the M1 Metro. Had this been built instead of what we got, I would have trouble believing that it wouldn't be performing better when it comes to ridership. And not only that, it would also make Paramata far better connected, with way more people and areas now with easy transit access.
Now, of course, hindsight is 20/20, and the system that got built is what we're stuck with, at least in the short term. But what can we learn for the future of the line, especially as work on stage 2 gets underway? Well, I think future extensions of the line that make it look more like that earlier proposal would be good. A northern branch up to Castle Hill would be very useful, and extending the current Carlingford branch to Epping also seems like a bit of a no-brainer. Both of these would allow the line to reach far more people and add some useful new interchanges.
On top of that, some stops could be dropped, like Fennel Street, which if removed would leave about a kilometer gap between the next closest stations, which is still easily walkable. As for stage two, again, my thoughts are quite similar. The various ferry, rail, and train interchanges it will add are great, but some of the stops are still quite close together, and dropping a few of these would not only let the line run faster, but it would be cheaper to build as well.
At the end of the day, while I think the Paramatite Rail has not been as successful as many would have hoped, I think the bones of a good transit system are there. With a few extensions, stop removals, and new interchanges, I really do believe the line could turn its fates around to become a well-used and deeply integral part of the city's transport network.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you did, consider giving it a like and subscribing to the channel. If you really liked it, you could consider supporting the channel on Kofi. It is always greatly appreciated. But with that all said, I'm Kyle, aka City Moose. And as always, thanks for watching.