Metropolitan Rail Expansion Programme, 2005
On 15 June 2005, NSW Premier Bob Carr shortly before his resignation announced the Metropolitan Rail Expansion Programme (MREP). The MREP consisted of three new rail connections:
- a North West Rail Link from Cheltenham to Rouse Hill,
- a South West Line between Glenfield and Leppington in Sydney's South West and
- a new CBD railway line between Redfern and Chatswood.
Estimated to cost about A$8 billion, $5 billion of which was for the building of a new tunnel under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney central business district, (called the CBD Rail Link). Under this plan, the north-west suburbs would be served by the North West Rail Link by 2017, the new south-west suburbs would be linked to the network via the South West Rail Link by 2015, and the rail line would pass through the new growth corridor from Ryde to the airport. Critics of the New South Wales government have criticised what they perceive as a lack of follow through, citing the previously planned Parramatta to Chatswood rail link which has since been truncated to link only Epping to Chatswood, with the Epping to Parramatta portion postponed indefinitely.
It would also have included quadruplicated tracks between St Leonards and Chatswood on the North Shore line. In 2006, Premier Morris Iemma placed planning buffers along two potential corridors in the CBD (the MetroWest and MetroPitt routes) to secure future accessibility. Developers who want to excavate deeper than two metres within a 25-metre buffer zone of the corridors will need to seek RailCorp's approval.
Read more about this topic: Proposed Railways In Sydney
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