Sydney CBD to Parramatta West Metro

According to media leaks, joint state and federal government study has been conducted into a West Metro between the the Sydney CBD and Parramatta in western Sydney ("Get ready: high-rise suburbs coming", January 6, 2009 and "Subway a highway to high-rise hell, say opponents", January 7, 2009, by Linton Besser and Wendy Frew, Sydney Morning Herald). The West Metro, underneath Parramatta Road would cost $8.1 billion. Like the proposed and cancelled North-West metro, the scheme is not for a European style metro, but a heavy underground railway.

The proposal appears far more feasible than previous abandoned Sydney railway plans. The planned stops at locations such as Leichhardt appear much better thought out than the previous metro (see map from Paramatta Council). The project would depend on funding from the Federal Government's Infrastructure Australia. The carefully worked out process IA has for selecting projects should help avoid the failures of previous NSW government rail and road projects.