Public Meeting in Castle Hill - Public Transport in the North West

Last night, Feb 24, 2009, in the auditorium of the Castle Grand, the Mayor of Baulkham Hills, Clr Larry Bolitho, told us an amazing story about the efforts to get the North West Railway built.


He told us that the first stage of the line, the line to Carlingford, was completed in 1901. The second stage of the plan was to extend the line to Castle Hill. According to the Mayor, in 1926, the local Progress Association was formed with 6 objectives, the first of which was to advocate for the implementation of Stage 2.


Apparently the Progress Association was wound up in 2006, 80 years later, with 5 of their 6 objectives fulfilled, and we know which one wasn't. No wonder the people in the North West are dispirited about the broken pledges that have been made to them.


It was plain from the wonderful speakers at this meeting, Professor Peter Newman and Dr Garry Glazebrook, that providing some sort of high capacity mass transit system to the North West is an environmental, moral and economic imperitive. AND it is very achievable.


Professor Newman was able to provide lots of international evidence to show that his concepts of Transit Oriented Development, Pedestrian Oriented Development and Green Oriented Development (TOD, POD, GOD) provide economic and social benefits as well as being part of a movement to reduce greenhouse gasses. See here for more information about Professor Newman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Newman_(Australian

Dr Garry Glazebrook provided a plan to show how it is possible to create a plan which will satisfy the needs of the people in the North West of Sydney as well as the rest of Sydney within reasonable budget limits. He believes that it is the building of a social consensus, a commitment from the people, to the development of a sustainable transport plan is what is missing from the political debate. That is why the various plans are created and then abandoned. See here for more information about Dr Garry Glazebrook http://datasearch.uts.edu.au/dab/staff/built-environment/details.cfm?StaffId=2181

This blogspot website, and the work we are doing to establish a public transport users association for Western Sydney is to try to make a contribution to solving this problem. Hopefully it won't take us 80 years to achieve (or to have to give in).

If you want to join us in advocating for the needs of public transport users in Western Sydney contact Hugh Worrall or Paul Falzon at Western Sydney Community Forum on 02 9633 5068 or email hughw@wscf.org.au or paulf@wscf.org.au or simply comment on this blog, do our survey and leave your email address and we will contact you.

Congratulations to Radio 2CCR for organising this Forum www.2ccrfm.com/

Eco Logica

Amazing website and journal about sustainable transport in Europe

http://www.eco-logica.co.uk/index.html

This is an amazing website and worth having a look at if you are interested in transport issues and can help us imagine what we could achieve here in Western Sydney.

"Eco-Logica Ltd was established in 1993 and since that date has worked with both public and private sector clients, the European Commission, NGOs and community organisations. Eco-Logica consists of a small group of people with broadly based experience in transport, urban and rural planning, environmental management, sustainable development and the practical implementation of high environmental standards in strategic and sectorally-specific policy areas. We have a particularly strong interest in transport policy and practice, international experience in this area and benchmarking."

We Need Motivated Public Transport Users

We are looking for people to help form a foundation committee for a Western Sydney public transport users association. We are using the Melbourne PTUA as inspiration (see link on the menu to the right on this page).

We need people who are:
· Regular public transport users
· Live or work in Western Sydney
· Are skilled and motivated to create the new governance committee

We are looking for people from across all of Western Sydney.

We are not looking for representatives of agencies or organisations unless they are also Western Sydney public transport users who want to represent themselves.

As soon as practical, we will be creating local groups to work on local ‘issues’. We will then try to build a set of transport recommendations that are important for all of Western Sydney.

We are looking to create an organisation that is devoted solely to looking after the interests of Western Sydney public transport users.

Western Sydney Community Forum is supporting the formation of the organisation. If you have an interest in this, or want to recommend someone, please contact Hugh (Ph: 9633 5068, hughw@wscf.org.au ) or Paul (Ph: 9687 8937, paulf@wscf.org.au ).