Metro EIS launched behind wall of spin

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15 September 2017

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The Government’s release of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Sydenham to Bankstown Corridor has been accompanied by glossy spin and half-truths.

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According to Peter Olive Spokesperson for the Sydenham to Bankstown Alliance, “The people of the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor are not getting a new train line they are getting over development and disruption”.

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“The State Government is using selective facts, half-truths and spin to try and convince the community that the Metro project is an upgrade and worth the disruption and overdevelopment that will result.”

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“The Government claims that commuters will save "up to an hour". However, this is not per trip or day. It is a weekly calculation. These calculations don't factor in the travel times for those passengers who will need to change trains at Sydenham and wait. Nor does it address the passengers who live to the west of Bankstown who will also have to change trains there." 

 

“One of supposed benefits of the “upgrade” is an “Interchange with Sydney Train Services”. This isn’t an upgrade, it’s just an admission that the Bankstown line will be decoupled and isolated from the rest of the Sydney Rail System.”

 

“The government is using station upgrades as a sweetener to the community. But stations like Marrickville have just finished being upgraded and are completely accessible.”

 

 "The government is wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money decoupling the existing Sydenham to Bankstown line from the Sydney Rail network and replacing it with a Metro."

 

"The failure to build new rail lines beyond Sydenham to suburbs that don’t currently have them is surely the greatest failing of the Government’s Sydenham to Bankstown Metro proposal and no amount of spin can hide this,” he said.

 

Contact: Peter Olive (0401) 719 148