Western Sydney is growing fast and our community feels it every single day on crowded roads and on long, exhausting train commutes.
Every day, more than 500,000 cars head east on congested roads. Families are paying high tolls, placing real pressure on household budgets and too many people are stuck with train trips that take more than an hour.
That is why I have long advocated and supported an east-west Metro line linking the Airport, Cecil Park, Prairiewood and Smithfield to the new Metro at Westmead and a direct connection to Sydney.
There was a real chance to build an east-west metro line, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform transport in our region but this NSW Government walked away from it.
Planning for a metro route between Western Sydney Airport and Westmead was started in 2019, but this government cancelled it. At the very same time, billions are being spent on other metros, light rail, ferries, tunnels and even a $40 million bike path over the Harbour Bridge.
An East-West Metro line would give people faster, more affordable travel, connect them to jobs, universities and major centres and take pressure off our roads.
Yet while this passenger metro was cancelled, plans are moving ahead for a 24-hour freight-only rail corridor from Port Botany to Western Sydney Airport through our suburbs. That sends a clear message from this government: freight before families, parcels, not people.
Freight rail runs day and night, it creates noise, it can divide communities and it leaves our residents carrying the burden.
I will keep fighting for transport that puts our residents first and does not treat us as second-class citizens. An East-West Metro would connect families to jobs and opportunity and give us a fair share in the future of western Sydney.
