bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Nick Squires

Sydney
It is an eyesore, an embarrassment and a serious health risk. Once a rutted colonial cart track linking the infant colony of Sydney with its first outlying settlement, the Parramatta Road  is one of the city's ugliest thoroughfares.
This multilane highway is lined with a soulless procession of used car dealerships, grotty pubs, boarded-up shops and fast food outlets.
It is the city's busiest transport corridor - each year motorists rack up 9 million kilometres on the  10km-long asphalt avenue.
Sydney may be regarded overseas as a hedonist's paradise of sunshine and surf, but local lore has it that the average inhabitant spends more time stuck in traffic on Parramatta Road than lounging on the golden sands of Bondi Beach.
The  bleak corridor of exhaust fumes and cracked concrete  was once described by an urban planning academic as 'not just a bad road;  a notorious emblem of all that is ugly, abrasive and frustrating'.
So the announcement this week that the state government intends to build a sleek Hong Kong-style subway system linking the city and Parramatta was welcomed by harassed commuters.
New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma said the system would be modelled on Hong Kong's MTR and the MRT of Singapore.
The aim is to  tempt thousands of commuters out of their cars in favour of travelling to work  in air-conditioned comfort in swift, almost silent  trains. Each six-carriage train will be able to carry 1,000 people, with 30,000 passengers an hour being whisked in and out of the central business district.
It will be the first stage of a mass transit plan  that will eventually extend way out west to satellite centres such as Penrith and Blacktown, and deep into the eastern suburbs, linking Maroubra and Botany Bay.
'It's not if Sydney gets a metro, it's when,' said Mr Iemma. '[Services will be] high frequency and provide an alternative to heavy rail.'
The  project, expected to cost between A$5 billion (HK$35 billion) and A$7 billion, is to be paid for by selling off three state-owned electricity companies and leasing out power stations - a deal expected to earn the government A$15 billion.
The  subway could take 'many decades' to build, Mr Iemma said. 'What I'm about is getting cracking on starting metros. They're not going to happen overnight.
'They take many years to build, but ...  a decision has been made, we will have metro for Sydney.'
The exact cost, the construction time and the first route to be built would be revealed early next year, he added.
Sydneysiders may be forgiven, however, for being reluctant  to throw away their car keys.
They have become wearily accustomed over the years to seeing promises of shiny  infrastructure projects come to nothing.
A decades-old commitment to extend the existing overland rail network to Bondi Beach remains unfulfilled, and as recently as 2001, rail planners told the state government that three metro lines needed to be built by 2020.
State opposition leader Barry O'Farrell indulged in a spot of predictable point scoring, but his criticisms held some truth.
'Morris Iemma's claim that funds raised from any electricity sale would be used to renew state infrastructure simply can't be believed given Labor's history and its failure to deliver a long list of projects over 12 years.'
Frustrated commuters inching their way along Parramatta Road will await future developments with  interest.



Commuters stuck in traffic greet subway promise with scepticism