NSW Infrastructure

The Fifth Estate: The top 10 TFE articles of 2015

  • by

The Fifth Estate: The top 10 TFE articles of 2015 (22 December 2015)

2015 has been a huge year for The Fifth Estate. Reader numbers continued to grow; we clocked up our most read, commented upon and shared story in TFE history; and the number of special projects, events and ebooks we took on seemed to grow exponentially.

Following the success of COP21 and a renewed focus on cities from our federal government and indeed the world, we leave the year hopeful for an even bigger 2016 – hopeful that our leaders now finally understand the importance of a sector we’ve been talking about for close to seven years now, and hopeful that they will now implement some concrete actions to improve its sustainability.

As we head off for the Christmas break, we’ll leave you with the top 10 stories of 2015 – there’s some scandal, some hope, some “how-to”s and a little bit of old-fashioned sustainability ingenuity to boot. See you in 2016!

Read More »The Fifth Estate: The top 10 TFE articles of 2015

NSW Government steals Western Sydney’s future with over-priced light rail

  • by

EcoTransit Sydney – Media Release: NSW Government steals Western Sydney’s future with over-priced light rail (8 December 2015)

Ecotransit Sydney today welcomed the government building one quarter of the Parramatta light rail network. However the community is staggered by the massive cost of such a small start. With a massive initial estimate and so little detail, taxpayers are left concerned that this is yet another open ended honey pot for the construction industry.

Read More »NSW Government steals Western Sydney’s future with over-priced light rail

Video: Gavin Gatenby & David Kirby on WestConnex & history repeating

  • by

david-kirby-gavin-gatenbyThe Fifth Estate: Video: Gavin Gatenby & David Kirby on WestConnex & history repeating (2 July 2015)

In the late 1970s in Sydney it was the South-West freeway, now the M5, that drew heavy opposition.

Today it’s the WestConnex, but as far as EcoTransit Sydney’s Gavin Gatenby is concerned the fundamentals have not changed.

Gatenby, no stranger to agitation on behalf of more equitable and sustainable outcomes, has interviewed former NSW Supreme Court judge David Kirby, who conducted a thorough review of radial freeways on behalf of the NSW government at the time, starting in 1979.Read More »Video: Gavin Gatenby & David Kirby on WestConnex & history repeating

Under way: Work has been undertaken to stabilise the rail embankment. Picture: Jessica Christodoulou

$17 million cost of Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel ‘shocks’ country cousins

  • by
Under way: Work has been undertaken to stabilise the rail embankment. Picture: Jessica Christodoulou

Under way: Work has been undertaken to stabilise the rail embankment. Picture: Jessica Christodoulou

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader: $17 million cost of Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel ‘shocks’ country cousins By Murray Trembath June 19, 2015

Roads and Infrastructure Minister Duncan Gay has defended the staggering $17 million cost of the Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel, saying comparisons with other projects are ‘‘simplistic’’.Read More »$17 million cost of Arncliffe pedestrian tunnel ‘shocks’ country cousins

The transport system we really need

  • by

South Sydney Herald: The transport system we really need (15 March 2015)

Every time you walk around the “hood” you may very well meet one of the 50,000 new residents moving to southern Sydney. The newly planned Southern Growth Area is loosely defined from the Eastern Distributor to the Southern Railway and from Cleveland Street to Gardeners Road. The City is being redrawn dramatically, with the old Waterloo Swamp now transforming into the dense heart of the city. This ambitious venture deserves all the attention it can get from the community.Read More »The transport system we really need

Sydney North West rail link ‘unfit for purpose’

  • by
The planned single-deck line would be the start of the privatisation of the city's rail system.

The planned single-deck line would be the start of the privatisation of the city’s rail system.

Green Left Weekly: Sydney North West rail link ‘unfit for purpose’ (July 7, 2014)

The planned single-deck line would be the start of the privatisation of the city’s rail system.

The NSW Coalition government’s proposed private North West rail link, from Chatswood to Rouse Hill, will be “unfit for the purpose” it is intended for, according to Gavin Gatenby, co-convener of EcoTransit Sydney.

Instead of being a more efficient mode of mass commuter transport, the planned single-deck line would be an “entry wedge for the privatisation of the city’s rail system”.

The central plank on the NSW budget, released on June 17, was a plan to sell-off the state’s electricity infrastructure, the “poles and wires”, in order to fund large-scale transport projects — principally the $13 billion WestConnex private motorway, and the private North West rail line, intended to be later extended through the Sydney CBD to Bankstown, at an estimated cost of $10 billion.Read More »Sydney North West rail link ‘unfit for purpose’