Parramatta Lord Mayor's Transport Forum

The Lord Mayor of Parramatta hosted a forum focussing on transport issues at the Sebel in Parramatta today.

The main issues raised were:
* The importance of Parramatta as the second city of Sydney and the potential of Western Sydney to outgrow the established, pre-1948, Eastern Sydney in the near future.
* The importance of consolidating the idea of the City of Cities with good transport connections between the Western Sydney cities, Parramatta, Penrith and Liverpool and the other regional and specialist centres such as Campbelltown, Blacktown and Macquarie Park.
* The determination of Parramatta Council to advocate for the completion of the Epping to Parramatta Rail link.
* Many people from the Epping and Carlingford area spoke to advocate for better transport connections into their area.
* The importance of including Parramatta and Westmead in the 'Global Arc' of Sydney.
* The importance of establishing strong governance and funding structures at the state level to ensure that long-term plans are made and enacted.

From a WSPTU perspective, it was disappointing that there was no talk about local transport or thinking about building transport from a household level. It was all infrastructure, lines on maps and 'big picture' stuff . The Shadow Transport Minister did, however, reinforce the Opposition's pledge to increase funding to Community Transport. She also spoke very favourably of the work of Community Transport which was not mentioned by anyone else.

Here is a link to the Lord Mayors Column

Parramatta City Council Transport webpage

Council's "Destination Parramatta" webpage

Parramatta Twenty25 Plan - Dreaming Parramatta