Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: nordvpn.com/builtbeauty. It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hey! Sorry if you noticed this video was a bit more rushed than usual. I’m actually in Melbourne (!) right now with Amy, and I made this really quickly before I got here. I just really wanted to get something out about the WestConnex before I headed off travelling for all of December. It's the fastest I've ever made a video lol. The WestConnex has been in the news a lot lately, after all! There’s not gonna be any more videos for the rest of 2023; this is my last video. I'm travelling for all of December ✈. It’s been a great year for my channel, we’ve gone from 10,000 subscribers to over 34,000 and I’m really really happy about that. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me 😊😊 I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’m very keen to return in 2024, I have a lot of video ideas cooking away. So to anyone reading this right now, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, have a great holidays, and I’ll see you next year!
I don't know anyone who loves Parramatta Road and its existence gives Parramatta a bad name as it's a relic from the days of the West being the center of poverty
Parra Road is beautiful. It’s the persistence of legacy Grand Narrative in post-post-modernist deconstructionist tunnel machine fail. Destroying ‘Urban decay’ is the Gentrifica-toll-nation. Parra Rd is reminder there used to actually be productive use of inner Sydders. Take that old Greek Milkvar from 1950s - better then any Connex
Here in Victoria we use blue instead of green for guidance signs on toll roads. Makes confusion impossible. If your destination is on a green sign it's free and if it's on a blue sign it's tolled.
@@thefitnessinstructor8937I think Vic also uses blue background (with white text) for shopping centres etc. The toll signs use blue background with orange text
Terrible idea, I much prefer the NSW way. The colours are supposed to be for a purpose - green for suburbs, blue for points of interest (e.g. hospitals), brown for tourist spots, etc. Making toll roads a different colour is pointless and confusing. The bright yellow 'TOLL' nsw uses is more than enough.
WestConnex is the perfect metaphor for all the governments involved with it; in terms of the planning and design, the "procurement" process, and the resultant traffic clusterf***, even the signage. Peak NSW
Also the philosophy of engineering departments who see a design guideline and will use it uncritically in order to avoid any need to defend their work.
NSW Government is Australia's top government in planning and development are always patch fixes and scoped for for 4 years at a time. Where different dipartments and bodies fail to get their goals aligned, always NSW's left hand doesn't talk to right hand and vice-versa. And long needed developments things only get brought up and seriously debated on lead up to elections. Perfect example Sydney's trains and the never ending election promise of high-speed rail linking major towns like Newcastle to Sydney for commuting. Don't get be started on budgeting and over charging the public on things that should be free. Cost blow of projects like the new tunes are prime example and things like charging the public again for paid things like the M4 motorway.
@@tuut1241 You are almost right. The NSW Government (the previous one, not the current one that is just cutting the previous government's ribbons at official openings) actually did build big things. What Labor did in the 16 prior years was a joke. All tunnels built were undersized, clearly not fit for purpose and two of them went broke, one went broke twice. Yes, the pinchpoint near the Anzac bridge was a clear under-estimation of traffic flows, however that is somewhat temporary. When the Western Harbour Tunnel opens it will carry route M8, continuing on from the M8 tunnels and 20-30% of the traffic being pushed on to the Anzac Bridge will be diverted to the Western Harbour Tunnel, taking traffic off the Anzac Bridge, Western Distributor and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Additionally, when Sydney Metro West opens in a few years, cars will simply not be used by many people who will take the train to work for the first time. Ahhh, almost forgot, the toll on the M4 is not to cover a road that has been paid off but to cover the cost of widening it from three to four lanes each way, two to five lanes each way at the approaches to the tunnels and the Concord Interchange, and build the extra flyover at Granville.
I honestly think they should go with Melbourne and Brisbane’s approach with colored blue signs for tolls for example with the “To M8 Toll” section being colored blue with the non toll routes being green.
As it turns out, the current light green signs were only used on Freeways until the late 1980’s. Before that, other roads were on a very dark green background. The change over to all light green occurred in the early 1990’s.
I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on toll roads as where I'm from (Vancouver, Canada) toll roads are extremely rare, and I've also been to Japan where there really aren't any expressways that don't have tolls. I think they can be a valuable tool for fighting traffic congestion and automobile use, while also being pretty inconsequential to pay for freight or intercity buses. The key is to really make sure that people dislike driving so much on the alternatives that they're willing to either pay the toll, or do something other than drive. IMO this means that you should toll motorways & high traffic roads, and then make sure that everything that's not in that category does not primarily prioritize traffic flow. Bus lanes, bike lanes, fewer general purpose travel lanes in general all great, traffic signals that change frequently to prioritize pedestrians, etc. Taking back the road space to create alternatives that might be better than driving at all. Of course, it's not good when those tolls aren't going to fund public projects, and instead are just going to private shareholders. So I totally get what you're saying. If it were up to me, TransLink (our local unified transit agency, covers both public transit & major road network) would collect tolls from basically all of our bridges and use them to fund transportation projects in general.
Agreed, toll roads can have their benefits. Trouble is I don’t think Sydney does enough to try force people onto tolls or onto public transport. I hope they do some traffic calming, bike lanes, light rail etc to Parra Road to try encourage cars onto the WestConnex or onto public transposta.
@@ytlurker220 That is the case generally in major cities in Japan - if you want to drive and get somewhere quickly, especially when it's busy, there's going to be a toll involved. There are a lot of other options other than driving and this helps encourage that, which itself reduces traffic for anyone who after all that still needs to be on the road
Sharath. Your channel has grown and grown so much and your interest in and perception and knowledge of the subtleties of complex infrastructure projects is incredible. You have a huge future in urban and infrastructure planning. I hope that this is recognised and utilised by the appropriate authorities. I have always had a huge fascination with infrastructure and planning. And only wish that i had access to the level of technology and interface that you have today. Make the most of it. You wont regret it. And keep the project analysis and recommendation going. We need you. Best. Hamish.
As someone who lives in the Blue mountains and needs to drive in for work it's been a fantastic addition. The drive has shortened by 30+ minutes! It's brilliant! City West link and Parramatta Rd sucked Now they need to build more pt!!!
The way I found out this was open was by driving across the ANZAC bridge towards Annandale while coming home from visiting some friends on the North Shore, and very suddenly finding myself transported to a completely different part of Sydney 🙃 The signs on the ANZAC Bridge were _not_ clear that the lanes to get to Annandale were different, despite it being a common turn off point!
The same thing with Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road. Since opening the M8 and now tolling the M5 East the traffic on these roads have never been worse.
Hi Sharath. Enjoy the holiday season! Can’t wait for what next year will bring in terms of content. Thanks for bringing these amazing videos to us this year and covering my favourite topic; transport.
Independent Truck Drivers often steer clear of using motorways because they're quite costly, some smaller companies prohibit drivers going on them unless they have to. For instance, traveling from Eastern Creek to Botany (M7,M5,M5 East) can cost a truck about $50 each way, just on tolls. It would be more practical if trucks were charged a flat weekly rate to access motorways
Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road has been completely packed since the introduction of the M5 Tunnel Toll (which in my opinion is to make the M8 competitive). When I drive into uni (I cannot commute 4 hours a day sometimes, so driving which takes about 2 hours return is an alternate and quicker option)
@@jamesrichardson645just made a similar comment. I’d love to understand why trucks are fined for NOT using the NorthConnex but no fines exist for trucks evading the M8, M5 and (soon to be) M6 tolls.
@@pholliez Politics, getting trucks off of pennant hills road was an election promise it was done to help win an election and nothing more. Unless the people affected by trucks avoiding the M5, M8 and soon to be M6 get pissed off enough that internal polling data shows people would be willing to switch parties in order to get it addressed, it simply wont happen.
@mike-williams any private owner just removes the speed limiters. They make driving more difficult than it needs to be. It prevents them from safely overtake other trucks, or speeding slightly at the bottom of a hill to keep momentum.
Remember Sharath, not every motorist can use public transport. Thousands of goods and services providers can't be expected to lug tools and machinery around on public transport to, from work and inbetween jobs for the day As someone who largely uses the M4 as a service provider, this network is a game changer. No more sitting in the city west link in standstill traffic When the proposed/visionary rail and roads links are finished (2050) Sydney will be a much better city to commute around Great video as always!
If you're driving a work van you can just expense the tolls though, right? One of the bonuses of public transport & other traffic reduction measures is that it relieves pressure from the road transport infrastructure you already have, so the people who actually do need to use the road will be able to do it more easily and you can get more without having to build a whole bunch of very expensive (especially for the capacity) road infrastructure I don't think anyone's saying this is a bad project necessarily, but there are definitely better alternatives to building bigger motorways all the time.
@@DevynCairns Yes an no. Toll still has to be paid. Ultimately it comes out of the customers pocket I'm hoping all the other proposed roadways come to fruition Western Sydney is terrible to use public transport from. A simple 30-40 drive, can take hours in some cases
@@JohnFromAccounting the minority of Sydneysiders live within reasonable commutable distance of public transport. Should the rest suffer in standstill traffic when a long overdue road network should have been completed at least a decade ago
I am so glad I don't have to drive in Sydney traffic during pick times anymore. (Retired). It's always been a nightmare and the more roads they build the worse it gets.
if they want to develop Parramatta Rd, the NSW govt need to crack down and introduce legislation to eradicate NIMBY. Its been going on for FAR too long in the innerwest
I have my Google set to avoid toll roads. As someone who travels through Sydney to get somewhere else the $30 in told just isn't worth the 30 minutes I save.
That will not work because people with families still need a larger car that fits everyone in even if that is the minority of their usage. Maybe there is some way to have owning separate commuting and family cars but I can’t see it. A stick never works, you will never get people to abandon cars when even with the ridiculous traffic public transport takes twice as long or more for many people
Costs me over $150 a week in tolls to visit my ageing parents out west. If I don’t use tolls it’s up to a 1.5-2 hr journey depending on clusterfrack traffic and merging botttlenecks. And we pay 30% tax. Thanks Sydney.
I travel from Beverly Hills to Botany and back for work. Catching public transport (a train then a bus) takes at least an hour each way and was costing $50 a week 7 years ago when I stopped using it. Traveling by car takes 30 minutes each way and costs me $50 a fortnight even with the current high fuel prices. I used to take the M5 East but now refuse since they started charging a toll for a road that was once free. Going via Stoney Creek Rd may take 10 or 15 minutes longer tham using the tunnel but saving $11 in tolls each day makes it worth it.
Hey 👋 Brisbane fan here. Wondering your thoughts on the North Tunnel “a congestion-busting road tunnel between Kedron and Carseldine in Brisbane’s north”…?
As someone living near the M6 construction, this is so worrying. I’d love you to cover why the NorthConnex area has heavy fines for trucks NOT using it but there aren’t similar fines in the areas around the M8 and there are no proposals for truck fines for the M6 when it opens.
@@ibanezlaney Except that no-one builds station wagons now which are suitable for trade work. All the cars you mention will fit quite well into a standard sized traffic lane. Why the hatred?
Having been forced to go from South to North up Parramatta road before the tunnels existed, i couldn't understand how it was so bad vs Melbourne. And then the random tunnels i took that were flooded and copied the roads next to it. Just the whole city needs to be ripped up and started again. And remove tolls. The rot started with Jeff Kennett, the CityLink that was only meant to be a 25 year contract iirc. Conveniently was extended when they widened it. Just like the rest of the freeways attached were. It's so frustrating.
The only problem is people try to avoid tolls. No problem for me at all as I paid the toll, 20 mins from Parra to City is a dream run. Just pay for it, if you don't, just stuck in traffic
Having lived in Sydney for the past 10 years (and loving most of it), I think it has the absolute worst road signs of any place I’ve ever been to. They’re completely vague / don’t tell you where the road spits you out and if you make a mistake you’ll lose over an hour of time. It’s also common that there’s no street signs anywhere. Makes driving without a gps almost impossible unless you’ve driven the route before
I've never had an issue with Sydney's arterial road signage. It's quite clear and understable in 99.9% of cases and I rarely go off course because of signage. My one gripe is that they are no longer putting the white border around the highway numbers. This doesn't make signs confusing, just harder to read.
In my view its great to have these infrastructures build when interest rates were super low. Look at other states struggling to build infrastructure when interest rates are high.
Genuine question, is this what's happening: Traffic from out West is having a dream run all the way to town, but at the expense of traffic from Victoria Rd? I mean why are there suddenly more people wanting to get on Anzac Bridge (ooh new tunnel, let's go for a jolly drive into town - seems unlikely)? It's too soon for induced traffic, in fact all the bad press should be suppressing traffic. If that's what's happening, surely the pragmatic response is, take a lane off the incoming traffic from the West, make them merge in the tunnel, and give that lane to the Victoria Rd traffic to more fairly allow access to ANZAC bridge? (If that's not the scenario, forget I spoke)
@BuildingBeautifully, can. you do a post about the WestConnex Airport exit? Spills out to suburban Mascot and Gardeners Rd. Seems like the newly constructed overpasses between the Domestic and International terminals were a wasted opportunity to link with WestConnex traffic?
I don’t know why they do snap openings. There should be a clear date and on-road signage in the weeks ahead preparing drivers. eg. “Iron Cove to Anzac bridge opens 26 Nov. Toll free.” It’s good to have online available animations but you can’t beat the reach of signage to the actual road users. Often lost in the discussion but happy to see included here is one of the “why-was-it-built?” reasons and that is freight. Every productivity report for decades on Sydney has called for better movement around the city and out of the city for freight out of the airport and port botany. Costing the economy x to y billions. Will be interesting to also see the impact the new western Sydney airport has here, although the city continues to grow and it may just absorb the benefits for the growth.
The warning signage you mentioned was in place, both on overhead electronic signs and on portable roadside signs. The problem is, people do not read them.
5:00 Attacking Engineers over the M5 is not warranted at all!!! When Bob Carr was elected in 1995 he promised to remove the tolls from the M4 and M5 and build the M5 East toll free. Possibly two of the worst public policy decisions ever made. Before the election, companies had already put forward high quality 2 x 3 lane tunnel proposals as tollways. When they were asked for proposals to build the same tunnels toll free, the government claimed they couldn’t afford it. Civil Engineering companies, including my former employer, spent tens of millions of dollars repricing the project five times before they ended up with the affordable cheap and nasty M5 East we have now. The blame lies squarely at the feet of politicians, specifically Bob Carr who won the 1995 election on a lie about tollways.
Hi. Really enjoy your videos and have been a subscriber for a while. At 17:27 you state that Transurban is a private company. It is in fact a publicly listed company on the ASX, owned by the shareholders. Nb. Disclaimer. I own shares in Transurban
Simple fluid dynamics will predict that running 10 lanes into 4 will cause a log jamb. Who'd have thought! Generally, way-finding signage and lane markings have dived in quality in recent years. I tried to find my way from Crows Nest to Parramatta road recently and found that the 'bridge' lane became the 'tunnel' lane around a bend, necessitating an almost dangerous move to the lane I wanted. Then I was after a road to connect to Parramatta Rd so I could get to a function at a Sydney Uni college. No tips from the signs at all. All the signs were about distant destinations, or so general as to be useless. Confused signs confuse drivers, confused drivers are dangerous drivers. Dangerous drivers have accidents. Some of our freeway/motorway signage is just as confusing. The practice I'm used to in the States has some great ideas: numbered exists rather than unhelpful and sometimes ambiguous place names which mean nothing to newbies. Maybe both. so I can tell someone to get off the M4 westward at exit 10 instead of, say, the turn just past May's Hill, but before you get to Prospect (apologies to Laurie Anderson's song). Why not use both. Also the signs in the US, East coast anyway, that warn you for coming turn-offs. They have ''1st exit, Smithfield, 2nd exit Weatherill Park...(sorry just local names I've grabbed), which allow better planning of lane position than suddenly at 110 to come up to 'turn off in 2km to..." although one needs that as well.
The Hume Motorway has numbered exits and I am not sure why. It means nothing and the signage you mentioned will just get forgotten by many. What people need to understand is that it is not possible to include all place names on a sign. Only a handful of destinations can be covered and this is generally what happens. For everything else, there is the humble street directory.
Just to be fair about rail freight vs trucking, the freight line from Port Botany is already supplying three intermodal freight depots - my understanding is that the freight line is pretty much maxed out, and getting trucks in and out of Port Botany (some of Australia’s most expensive and critical infrastructure) was a big part of the motivation for WestConnex.
This project seems like a royal stuffup, how can you spend so much time and money and have it flop on opening day, I'm glad I don't go near Rozelle very often, and will definitely be steering clear of it until they can rectify the issues.
The money from sale of Westconnex $13billion went to the NSW Generations fund. Basically a hedge fund to gamble on stock market. They sold public assets to gamble and NSW now $130 billion in debt....
westconnex provides value. Every day I save 30-60 mins of my time travelling to sites all over Sydney, and when Gateway opens it gives me another 20 mins. Its questionable why it costs so much, where money goes, who gets cosy multimillion pension from it and so on, but at least it works and saves. And what gives me all these boulevards, pushbike paths and hypotetical trams on Parramatta rd? What to do there at all? How I get one cent or one minute from them? No way. Refuse.
Having the Paramatta LightRail through-run to CQ will add complexity to the network and result in a bottle neck. It would be best to add the connecting lines but terminate services at Railway SQ or Haymarket. If it does through-run then the L2 or L3 should terminate at Central for the slot to be given to the L4.
I don't agree with a lot of what you have to say, but starting to actually like you as a person / presenter. Puzzling confliction, hope you have a good holiday!
If they reduced Parramatta rd to single lane, traffic would be chaos. They built westconnex to cater for the increasing amount of traffic and to profit from that. A tram along Parramatta rd without more tunnels would instantly gridlock the entire city.
The proposed medium density precinct near us in Leichhardt is 100m behind yet is part of the "Parramatta Rd Revitalisation"?! Yes, it's walking distance to the light rail... the over capacity light rail... but why not include the commercial properties ON Parramatta Rd. Plus look at Camperdown - there are sad, soot covered established apartments along Parramatta Rd - will we get more of the same? Where's the traffic going if its not being reduced enough for bus lanes to be added (the Govt said they can't fit them in as the traffic post-Westconnex won't go down enough). This all makes it very easy to be a NIMBY. There's no faith in the process or the outcomes. Would love to know what percentage of NIMBYs are anti-development versus anti poor planning?
Completely unrelated, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the recent news of Rosehill racecourse relocating for new homes and potentially a new train station as part of the Metro west.
I can't see how Parramatta Rd could be revitalised if majority of traffic then forced to pay toll road for West Connex ( not all motorists can afford toll) . We have sold our future to transurban who would have to be compensated if any future public transport is build that competes with their toll roads.
Just build more public transit! NO, I live in Glenmore Park it takes nearly 30 minutes to get a bus to Penrith station. On a good day in 30 minutes, I can get to Homebush/Strathfield on the M4. By the time I wait for a train, you get the picture. I can make the city in 1-hour driving or 1 hour 45 mins by public transit.
The issue is that it's not managed by our government, the land was sold to another country. This means that money is king, or money talks and bull shit walks. What your asking with the sign changes is a simple solution, it will take years for them to implement these I'd say.
maybe charge private individuals say $10 toll and commercial users like trucks and taxis are free. Thereby pursuading trucks to use the freeways. Not sure what the shareholders would say.
You can charge somebody $10 to catch a train, in fact the privatised Sydney airport rail link screws them for $21.80 per person each way. Talk about gouging.
I'm from America, but I watch all your videos and Parramatta road is a road I hear so often it has to be a major road in the city. I imagine this rebuild will widen side walks and add bike lanes plus have mass transit!?
This rosella interchange is successful project . Aim to create traffic congestion to make drivers to give up Victoria road and use toll road . This can allow gov earn so much money ..
Not sure if you heard, they are building a mega huge carpark at a new interchange at Parramatta where ppl change to horse n buggy to go down Parramatta Rd to ease congestion. Ok, only joking and having fun
Trains are great as a cheaper option than cars, but they are a noise issue when above ground next to low-medium density housing. Noise and air pollution is even more of an issue when building medium density housing alongside roads (such as parramatta rd). NIMBY due above issues, overpopulation and over culture diversification. Indian/asian/arab invasion, white flight, properties lose value, crime increase. Rich/highly educated move to richer, lower density suburbs.
To say we should only build public transport is foolish and naive. We still need good road infrastructure for transporting goods, for tradies or anyone else who needs roads to make a living. Not all of us work in offices within city centers.
"Where to from here?" Ban new urban highways, close the WestConnex, tear down all current urban highways except the ones that can be converted into sustainable corridors, leave only the A9~ to avoid the city by car, move as much industry/logistics as possible outside of the A9~ringroad I disagree that it is unrealistic to have drastically fewer people commuting by car, what is unrealistic imo is to keep adding car infra and hoping a light rail line will make much of a difference (even if it indeed hopefully would remove a bit of car infra in the process)
What a shitshow. Build an underground road network that is actually very good. ...then sell it off and place such large tolls on it that people look for any way to AVOID IT. Insanity! That is why it hasn't had that effect....money. Money we as consumers cannot afford, so we look for ways around it.
“out of sight, out of mind” - this is typically my approach in Cities Skylines… and the results usually aren’t that great. Pretty hilarious that this was basically what happened in real life.
All those muppets that drove past the construction for the last 3.5 years and did not bother to do just a little research on how it was going to work when opened and just want to rely on GPS to go anywhere are the problem
The same people complaining about congested roads are the same people that complain bike sharing companies are bad, cyclists should pay rego, and any alternative transport like escooters should not be legalised. Australia says a lot of things but it's all really BS. They don't care about the environment or alternative transport options or getting gas guzzling cars off the road. It's about corruption and raising money via toll roads and speed cameras.
I'm waiting for overhigh trucks to get stuck in the Rozelle interchange Westconnex tunnels spegghti junction. The government will shoit you down for suggesting the words no toll or toll free on a sign to direct motorists to use the iron cove bridge. You should temporarily change your TH-cam channel name to "Building Awfully" Like your light rail route idea. What I do think is, given the amount of rail trackwork, signal failures , bus strikes & changes to bus timetables where shortage of drivers, accidents etc causing the cancellation and delays of public transport services. - residents should have alternative forms of public transport to get them to where they have to go & should not be inconvenienced by eg there is a signal fsilure somewhere amd the entire rail network is shut down but there is no rail replacement bus service so what is suggested? work from home or catch an Uber - not good enough.
Great video and long-time viewer. I work in the PPP space on the private side (no, not for TCL) and whilst I do agree TCL have a monopoly in the toll road space some of the broader statements about PPPs aren't entirely correct. Yes risk is moved from the public sector to the private in the form of loan the government has taken out from the private side, the concession and construction risk is also transferred (ie operational risk). And the public sector is still in debt to the private lenders. Not to mention PPPs have great use in other public infrastructure not just roads, for example in aus (amongst hospitals, schools, convention centres, housing, waste treatment etc) the Melbourne HCMT and metro tunnel are both PPPs, gold coast light rail, southern cross station and so on. If you want to explore PPPs in transport I would love to provide input and help out on a video. Cheers!!
I think part of the issue is not recognising that the westconnex (and surrounding locations on the signs) are NOT the destinations of the vehicles transiting through it. Don’t tell me “drummoyne” or “city” on the signs, instead: TELL ME *where* I’m going through the maze - “Gladesville Bridge”, or “Westbound M4”.
Sydney doesn’t deserve to be so corruptly governed, on all levels. There’s just too much money to be scammed that no one on top can make changes for the greater good.
@@BuildingBeautifully The government we have now only does two things:- 1. Opens projects that were built by the previous government. 2. Has cancelled any projects not already started. Jo Haylen is absolutely bloody useless.
People unhappily stuck in traffic should always remember “you are traffic”. People always think the traffic is everyone else. I think the Rozelle interchange should be renamed the Gladys in honour of her contribution to badly designed roads. I would like to see a light rail super-loop along the full length of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road with crossovers along Silverwater Road, Olympic Park and Homebush Bay Drive/ Concord Road. This would support higher densities, connect Sydney University, RPAH, WSU, Top Ryde City etc and convert these roads into something closer to boulevards with urban renewal. This could interconnect with train stations such as West Ryde and Strathfield and new metro stations such as Burwood North, Olympic Park etc
While your light rail plan sounds a bit too ambitious, I agree with the general idea that we need more light rails. Would absolutely support ones on Parra and Victoria Roads.
lol to be fair, I watched some of the emergency meeting and many of the people were just residents who want to get in and out of their street. One poor bloke was told his street will be fully good to go by 2028. He seemed a bit upset.
Before Sydney becomes like Los Angeles or Texan cities with crappy public transport and overuse on cars...we need to ramp up PT frequency everywhere and force drivers to pay additional fees per KM they drive, with exceptions for the following: -People in postcodes more than 1km away from a train station/major bus routes -Families with kids under 12 -Families caring for elderly/disability -People with a disability -People who drive for (NOT TO) work Sydney needs to become a public transport city like tokyo...and NIMBYS and anti TOD people can move to rural Australia
I’m so happy moving back to Sydney after twenty years And couldn’t find a house at Balmain. Instead bought at south coogee 😂😂😂😂 I’m soooooo happy. Thank you. I walk everywhere and even to the Westfield which is a big hike.
Hi Sharath, tonight I went to an event organised by Inner West Council where members of the community spoke to Transport for NSW including Howard Collins. It was a very interesting meeting and the council is going to set up an independent advisory board made out of experts in the local community to work on fixing Victoria Road. It was a very interesting meeting and it would’ve been great if you came!
The whole west connex & that interchange at Leichardt are expletive ing nightmares!!!! "Turn left" & there are 2 lefts what are you meant to do with that? Sydney's roads have become an expletive ing nightmare. I wish I had never come back to Sydney
Part of the issue is that in the original design much of the city bound traffic exited at Camperdown. To save money this exist was cancelled and no alternative arrangments were made. Very short sighted. The Rozelle interchange was never going to work and the City of Sydney tried to tell the LNP Government 6 years ago. In addition there is going to be more traffic coming into the system when the extension to Kogarah is completed.
When the Sydney light rail could have been build five times over for the cost of this disaster, there's no arguing that the Rozelle Interchange is one of the biggest wastes of money in recent years. They spent $16 billion to make traffic worse.
The lockdown has scared a lot of people off public transport, Our energy bills are too high due to net zero insanity and the increase in immigration is causing the housing crisis. We have a rail network that has been divided between public and private and are not compatible and a tram that runs up the middle of the CBD that I can walk faster than and bicycle lanes to further hinder traffic flow. If you are carrying tools or are delivery driver going into the city is a nightmare. Why not move the workplaces closer to where people live rather than everyone going into the city?
@@seanworkman431 "a tram that runs up the middle of the CBD that I can walk faster than..." No so much now, but true when the tram was first introduced, thanks to failure of traffic controllers to properly coordinate traffic lights in their favour, prioritising cars instead.
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Hey! Sorry if you noticed this video was a bit more rushed than usual. I’m actually in Melbourne (!) right now with Amy, and I made this really quickly before I got here. I just really wanted to get something out about the WestConnex before I headed off travelling for all of December. It's the fastest I've ever made a video lol. The WestConnex has been in the news a lot lately, after all!
There’s not gonna be any more videos for the rest of 2023; this is my last video. I'm travelling for all of December ✈. It’s been a great year for my channel, we’ve gone from 10,000 subscribers to over 34,000 and I’m really really happy about that. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me 😊😊
I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’m very keen to return in 2024, I have a lot of video ideas cooking away. So to anyone reading this right now, Merry Christmas, happy New Year, have a great holidays, and I’ll see you next year!
Thanks for the shoutout! As a professional Parramatta Road hater I got literal chills when you said "there remains one problem: Parramatta Road"
Ay you're that eggy bloke that was kicked out of a train station, right?
Parramatta Road is great for offroading when you don't want to leave the city.
@@notaplic8158I want an update on his response so commenting
I don't know anyone who loves Parramatta Road and its existence gives Parramatta a bad name as it's a relic from the days of the West being the center of poverty
Parra Road is beautiful. It’s the persistence of legacy Grand Narrative in post-post-modernist deconstructionist tunnel machine fail. Destroying ‘Urban decay’ is the Gentrifica-toll-nation. Parra Rd is reminder there used to actually be productive use of inner Sydders. Take that old Greek Milkvar from 1950s - better then any Connex
Here in Victoria we use blue instead of green for guidance signs on toll roads. Makes confusion impossible. If your destination is on a green sign it's free and if it's on a blue sign it's tolled.
Same in Brisbane
@@samsam21amb and Toowoomba.
in nsw blue signs denote commerical areas, centres of towns etc
@@thefitnessinstructor8937I think Vic also uses blue background (with white text) for shopping centres etc. The toll signs use blue background with orange text
Terrible idea, I much prefer the NSW way. The colours are supposed to be for a purpose - green for suburbs, blue for points of interest (e.g. hospitals), brown for tourist spots, etc. Making toll roads a different colour is pointless and confusing. The bright yellow 'TOLL' nsw uses is more than enough.
WestConnex is the perfect metaphor for all the governments involved with it; in terms of the planning and design, the "procurement" process, and the resultant traffic clusterf***, even the signage. Peak NSW
Also the philosophy of engineering departments who see a design guideline and will use it uncritically in order to avoid any need to defend their work.
Peak Liberal party govenment.
NSW Government is Australia's top government in planning and development are always patch fixes and scoped for for 4 years at a time. Where different dipartments and bodies fail to get their goals aligned, always NSW's left hand doesn't talk to right hand and vice-versa. And long needed developments things only get brought up and seriously debated on lead up to elections. Perfect example Sydney's trains and the never ending election promise of high-speed rail linking major towns like Newcastle to Sydney for commuting. Don't get be started on budgeting and over charging the public on things that should be free. Cost blow of projects like the new tunes are prime example and things like charging the public again for paid things like the M4 motorway.
@@tuut1241 You are almost right. The NSW Government (the previous one, not the current one that is just cutting the previous government's ribbons at official openings) actually did build big things. What Labor did in the 16 prior years was a joke. All tunnels built were undersized, clearly not fit for purpose and two of them went broke, one went broke twice.
Yes, the pinchpoint near the Anzac bridge was a clear under-estimation of traffic flows, however that is somewhat temporary. When the Western Harbour Tunnel opens it will carry route M8, continuing on from the M8 tunnels and 20-30% of the traffic being pushed on to the Anzac Bridge will be diverted to the Western Harbour Tunnel, taking traffic off the Anzac Bridge, Western Distributor and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Additionally, when Sydney Metro West opens in a few years, cars will simply not be used by many people who will take the train to work for the first time.
Ahhh, almost forgot, the toll on the M4 is not to cover a road that has been paid off but to cover the cost of widening it from three to four lanes each way, two to five lanes each way at the approaches to the tunnels and the Concord Interchange, and build the extra flyover at Granville.
I honestly think they should go with Melbourne and Brisbane’s approach with colored blue signs for tolls for example with the “To M8 Toll” section being colored blue with the non toll routes being green.
As it turns out, the current light green signs were only used on Freeways until the late 1980’s. Before that, other roads were on a very dark green background. The change over to all light green occurred in the early 1990’s.
i dunno, already seems pretty clear that the toll is only for the M8. you cant fix stupid.
@@gregessex1851which is great but most people on here including me were either young or not born in the early 90s.
@@Low760 hence the reason to mention that piece of history
Now now, can’t do anything that might affect private road profits
I suppose I have a bit of a different perspective on toll roads as where I'm from (Vancouver, Canada) toll roads are extremely rare, and I've also been to Japan where there really aren't any expressways that don't have tolls. I think they can be a valuable tool for fighting traffic congestion and automobile use, while also being pretty inconsequential to pay for freight or intercity buses. The key is to really make sure that people dislike driving so much on the alternatives that they're willing to either pay the toll, or do something other than drive.
IMO this means that you should toll motorways & high traffic roads, and then make sure that everything that's not in that category does not primarily prioritize traffic flow. Bus lanes, bike lanes, fewer general purpose travel lanes in general all great, traffic signals that change frequently to prioritize pedestrians, etc. Taking back the road space to create alternatives that might be better than driving at all.
Of course, it's not good when those tolls aren't going to fund public projects, and instead are just going to private shareholders. So I totally get what you're saying. If it were up to me, TransLink (our local unified transit agency, covers both public transit & major road network) would collect tolls from basically all of our bridges and use them to fund transportation projects in general.
Problem is when toll roads are the only fast and reliable option. Sydney's entire orbital expressway network is tolled.
Agreed, toll roads can have their benefits. Trouble is I don’t think Sydney does enough to try force people onto tolls or onto public transport. I hope they do some traffic calming, bike lanes, light rail etc to Parra Road to try encourage cars onto the WestConnex or onto public transposta.
@@ytlurker220 That is the case generally in major cities in Japan - if you want to drive and get somewhere quickly, especially when it's busy, there's going to be a toll involved. There are a lot of other options other than driving and this helps encourage that, which itself reduces traffic for anyone who after all that still needs to be on the road
Sharath. Your channel has grown and grown so much and your interest in and perception and knowledge of the subtleties of complex infrastructure projects is incredible. You have a huge future in urban and infrastructure planning. I hope that this is recognised and utilised by the appropriate authorities. I have always had a huge fascination with infrastructure and planning. And only wish that i had access to the level of technology and interface that you have today. Make the most of it. You wont regret it. And keep the project analysis and recommendation going. We need you. Best. Hamish.
As someone who lives in the Blue mountains and needs to drive in for work it's been a fantastic addition. The drive has shortened by 30+ minutes! It's brilliant!
City West link and Parramatta Rd sucked
Now they need to build more pt!!!
The way I found out this was open was by driving across the ANZAC bridge towards Annandale while coming home from visiting some friends on the North Shore, and very suddenly finding myself transported to a completely different part of Sydney 🙃 The signs on the ANZAC Bridge were _not_ clear that the lanes to get to Annandale were different, despite it being a common turn off point!
Best is to get off at the fishmarket glebe exit just before anzac bridge for annandale
The same thing with Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road. Since opening the M8 and now tolling the M5 East the traffic on these roads have never been worse.
You should do a video about the new plans for Rosehill Racecourse, apparently they're closing it down & building housing, which is great I think!
Hi Sharath. Enjoy the holiday season! Can’t wait for what next year will bring in terms of content. Thanks for bringing these amazing videos to us this year and covering my favourite topic; transport.
Thanks mate, and keep watching!
Independent Truck Drivers often steer clear of using motorways because they're quite costly, some smaller companies prohibit drivers going on them unless they have to. For instance, traveling from Eastern Creek to Botany (M7,M5,M5 East) can cost a truck about $50 each way, just on tolls. It would be more practical if trucks were charged a flat weekly rate to access motorways
Forest Road and Stoney Creek Road has been completely packed since the introduction of the M5 Tunnel Toll (which in my opinion is to make the M8 competitive). When I drive into uni (I cannot commute 4 hours a day sometimes, so driving which takes about 2 hours return is an alternate and quicker option)
@@jamesrichardson645just made a similar comment. I’d love to understand why trucks are fined for NOT using the NorthConnex but no fines exist for trucks evading the M8, M5 and (soon to be) M6 tolls.
@@pholliez I don't understand how large supposedly speed-limited trucks get away with travelling above posted limits on so many roads around Sydney.
@@pholliez Politics, getting trucks off of pennant hills road was an election promise it was done to help win an election and nothing more. Unless the people affected by trucks avoiding the M5, M8 and soon to be M6 get pissed off enough that internal polling data shows people would be willing to switch parties in order to get it addressed, it simply wont happen.
@mike-williams any private owner just removes the speed limiters. They make driving more difficult than it needs to be. It prevents them from safely overtake other trucks, or speeding slightly at the bottom of a hill to keep momentum.
Wait till an over-height truck tries his luck in the new interchange 😂
WestConnex tunnels are higher than the older ones.
Remember Sharath, not every motorist can use public transport. Thousands of goods and services providers can't be expected to lug tools and machinery around on public transport to, from work and inbetween jobs for the day
As someone who largely uses the M4 as a service provider, this network is a game changer. No more sitting in the city west link in standstill traffic
When the proposed/visionary rail and roads links are finished (2050) Sydney will be a much better city to commute around
Great video as always!
If you're driving a work van you can just expense the tolls though, right?
One of the bonuses of public transport & other traffic reduction measures is that it relieves pressure from the road transport infrastructure you already have, so the people who actually do need to use the road will be able to do it more easily and you can get more without having to build a whole bunch of very expensive (especially for the capacity) road infrastructure
I don't think anyone's saying this is a bad project necessarily, but there are definitely better alternatives to building bigger motorways all the time.
The minority of motorists who are genuinely doing it for work doesn't justify ruining the city for everyone else.
@@DevynCairns Yes an no. Toll still has to be paid. Ultimately it comes out of the customers pocket
I'm hoping all the other proposed roadways come to fruition
Western Sydney is terrible to use public transport from. A simple 30-40 drive, can take hours in some cases
@@JohnFromAccounting the minority of Sydneysiders live within reasonable commutable distance of public transport. Should the rest suffer in standstill traffic when a long overdue road network should have been completed at least a decade ago
As long as tolls exist, people are going to go out of their way to avoid them. I, myself, absolutely refuse to pay a toll.
Here in South Australia we don't have traffic jams or tolls...but don't come here we're fine without you.
I am so glad I don't have to drive in Sydney traffic during pick times anymore. (Retired). It's always been a nightmare and the more roads they build the worse it gets.
Maaaate, absolutely lost my mind when you said, "I think the engineers picked up a book called 'how to build a motorway - NOT'." Great content chief.
For traffic congested roads, why don’t we get rid of more intersections to reduce the number of lights?
if they want to develop Parramatta Rd, the NSW govt need to crack down and introduce legislation to eradicate NIMBY. Its been going on for FAR too long in the innerwest
I have my Google set to avoid toll roads. As someone who travels through Sydney to get somewhere else the $30 in told just isn't worth the 30 minutes I save.
I take the train.
Thank you for taking the time to explain what paid journalists appear to be unable to do so :-)
We needed to tax cars heavily with one person driving in a 5 seater. Car manufactures should have been pressured to build small commuter cars.
We have no auto industry anymore. We shouldn't let the car lobby have any influence whatsoever.
That will not work because people with families still need a larger car that fits everyone in even if that is the minority of their usage. Maybe there is some way to have owning separate commuting and family cars but I can’t see it. A stick never works, you will never get people to abandon cars when even with the ridiculous traffic public transport takes twice as long or more for many people
Costs me over $150 a week in tolls to visit my ageing parents out west. If I don’t use tolls it’s up to a 1.5-2 hr journey depending on clusterfrack traffic and merging botttlenecks. And we pay 30% tax. Thanks Sydney.
I travel from Beverly Hills to Botany and back for work. Catching public transport (a train then a bus) takes at least an hour each way and was costing $50 a week 7 years ago when I stopped using it. Traveling by car takes 30 minutes each way and costs me $50 a fortnight even with the current high fuel prices. I used to take the M5 East but now refuse since they started charging a toll for a road that was once free. Going via Stoney Creek Rd may take 10 or 15 minutes longer tham using the tunnel but saving $11 in tolls each day makes it worth it.
In Victoria, all toll road signage is blue. This way its extremely easy to tell which routes are free and tolled.
Can you please do a video about the Town Hall Plaza
Hey 👋 Brisbane fan here. Wondering your thoughts on the North Tunnel “a congestion-busting road tunnel between Kedron and Carseldine in Brisbane’s north”…?
As someone living near the M6 construction, this is so worrying. I’d love you to cover why the NorthConnex area has heavy fines for trucks NOT using it but there aren’t similar fines in the areas around the M8 and there are no proposals for truck fines for the M6 when it opens.
Probably size and weight limits given the 5.1m and also chemical trucks etc can't go in tunnels.
@@ibanezlaney Except that no-one builds station wagons now which are suitable for trade work. All the cars you mention will fit quite well into a standard sized traffic lane. Why the hatred?
The road signs in Sydney have always been hard to understand.
Having been forced to go from South to North up Parramatta road before the tunnels existed, i couldn't understand how it was so bad vs Melbourne. And then the random tunnels i took that were flooded and copied the roads next to it. Just the whole city needs to be ripped up and started again. And remove tolls. The rot started with Jeff Kennett, the CityLink that was only meant to be a 25 year contract iirc. Conveniently was extended when they widened it. Just like the rest of the freeways attached were. It's so frustrating.
The only problem is people try to avoid tolls. No problem for me at all as I paid the toll, 20 mins from Parra to City is a dream run. Just pay for it, if you don't, just stuck in traffic
Having lived in Sydney for the past 10 years (and loving most of it), I think it has the absolute worst road signs of any place I’ve ever been to. They’re completely vague / don’t tell you where the road spits you out and if you make a mistake you’ll lose over an hour of time. It’s also common that there’s no street signs anywhere. Makes driving without a gps almost impossible unless you’ve driven the route before
I've never had an issue with Sydney's arterial road signage. It's quite clear and understable in 99.9% of cases and I rarely go off course because of signage. My one gripe is that they are no longer putting the white border around the highway numbers. This doesn't make signs confusing, just harder to read.
In my view its great to have these infrastructures build when interest rates were super low. Look at other states struggling to build infrastructure when interest rates are high.
Genuine question, is this what's happening:
Traffic from out West is having a dream run all the way to town, but at the expense of traffic from Victoria Rd?
I mean why are there suddenly more people wanting to get on Anzac Bridge (ooh new tunnel, let's go for a jolly drive into town - seems unlikely)? It's too soon for induced traffic, in fact all the bad press should be suppressing traffic.
If that's what's happening, surely the pragmatic response is, take a lane off the incoming traffic from the West, make them merge in the tunnel, and give that lane to the Victoria Rd traffic to more fairly allow access to ANZAC bridge?
(If that's not the scenario, forget I spoke)
@BuildingBeautifully, can. you do a post about the WestConnex Airport exit? Spills out to suburban Mascot and Gardeners Rd. Seems like the newly constructed overpasses between the Domestic and International terminals were a wasted opportunity to link with WestConnex traffic?
I don’t know why they do snap openings. There should be a clear date and on-road signage in the weeks ahead preparing drivers. eg. “Iron Cove to Anzac bridge opens 26 Nov. Toll free.” It’s good to have online available animations but you can’t beat the reach of signage to the actual road users.
Often lost in the discussion but happy to see included here is one of the “why-was-it-built?” reasons and that is freight. Every productivity report for decades on Sydney has called for better movement around the city and out of the city for freight out of the airport and port botany. Costing the economy x to y billions.
Will be interesting to also see the impact the new western Sydney airport has here, although the city continues to grow and it may just absorb the benefits for the growth.
The warning signage you mentioned was in place, both on overhead electronic signs and on portable roadside signs. The problem is, people do not read them.
5:00 Attacking Engineers over the M5 is not warranted at all!!! When Bob Carr was elected in 1995 he promised to remove the tolls from the M4 and M5 and build the M5 East toll free. Possibly two of the worst public policy decisions ever made. Before the election, companies had already put forward high quality 2 x 3 lane tunnel proposals as tollways. When they were asked for proposals to build the same tunnels toll free, the government claimed they couldn’t afford it. Civil Engineering companies, including my former employer, spent tens of millions of dollars repricing the project five times before they ended up with the affordable cheap and nasty M5 East we have now. The blame lies squarely at the feet of politicians, specifically Bob Carr who won the 1995 election on a lie about tollways.
Hi. Really enjoy your videos and have been a subscriber for a while. At 17:27 you state that Transurban is a private company. It is in fact a publicly listed company on the ASX, owned by the shareholders.
Nb. Disclaimer. I own shares in Transurban
Simple fluid dynamics will predict that running 10 lanes into 4 will cause a log jamb. Who'd have thought!
Generally, way-finding signage and lane markings have dived in quality in recent years. I tried to find my way from Crows Nest to Parramatta road recently and found that the 'bridge' lane became the 'tunnel' lane around a bend, necessitating an almost dangerous move to the lane I wanted. Then I was after a road to connect to Parramatta Rd so I could get to a function at a Sydney Uni college. No tips from the signs at all. All the signs were about distant destinations, or so general as to be useless. Confused signs confuse drivers, confused drivers are dangerous drivers. Dangerous drivers have accidents.
Some of our freeway/motorway signage is just as confusing. The practice I'm used to in the States has some great ideas: numbered exists rather than unhelpful and sometimes ambiguous place names which mean nothing to newbies. Maybe both. so I can tell someone to get off the M4 westward at exit 10 instead of, say, the turn just past May's Hill, but before you get to Prospect (apologies to Laurie Anderson's song). Why not use both. Also the signs in the US, East coast anyway, that warn you for coming turn-offs. They have ''1st exit, Smithfield, 2nd exit Weatherill Park...(sorry just local names I've grabbed), which allow better planning of lane position than suddenly at 110 to come up to 'turn off in 2km to..." although one needs that as well.
That's why I take the train.
The Hume Motorway has numbered exits and I am not sure why. It means nothing and the signage you mentioned will just get forgotten by many. What people need to understand is that it is not possible to include all place names on a sign. Only a handful of destinations can be covered and this is generally what happens.
For everything else, there is the humble street directory.
Just to be fair about rail freight vs trucking, the freight line from Port Botany is already supplying three intermodal freight depots - my understanding is that the freight line is pretty much maxed out, and getting trucks in and out of Port Botany (some of Australia’s most expensive and critical infrastructure) was a big part of the motivation for WestConnex.
Omg I am so glad I moved to the Illawarra 6 years ago
This project seems like a royal stuffup, how can you spend so much time and money and have it flop on opening day, I'm glad I don't go near Rozelle very often, and will definitely be steering clear of it until they can rectify the issues.
The money from sale of Westconnex $13billion went to the NSW Generations fund. Basically a hedge fund to gamble on stock market. They sold public assets to gamble and NSW now $130 billion in debt....
westconnex provides value. Every day I save 30-60 mins of my time travelling to sites all over Sydney, and when Gateway opens it gives me another 20 mins. Its questionable why it costs so much, where money goes, who gets cosy multimillion pension from it and so on, but at least it works and saves.
And what gives me all these boulevards, pushbike paths and hypotetical trams on Parramatta rd? What to do there at all? How I get one cent or one minute from them? No way. Refuse.
Agreed
Having the Paramatta LightRail through-run to CQ will add complexity to the network and result in a bottle neck. It would be best to add the connecting lines but terminate services at Railway SQ or Haymarket. If it does through-run then the L2 or L3 should terminate at Central for the slot to be given to the L4.
I don't agree with a lot of what you have to say, but starting to actually like you as a person / presenter. Puzzling confliction, hope you have a good holiday!
Sydney born and bred, I'm grateful I don't have to navigate this nightmare.
If they reduced Parramatta rd to single lane, traffic would be chaos. They built westconnex to cater for the increasing amount of traffic and to profit from that. A tram along Parramatta rd without more tunnels would instantly gridlock the entire city.
off topic i know but 10:42 the black car that nearly rear ends the golf 😅
The proposed medium density precinct near us in Leichhardt is 100m behind yet is part of the "Parramatta Rd Revitalisation"?! Yes, it's walking distance to the light rail... the over capacity light rail... but why not include the commercial properties ON Parramatta Rd.
Plus look at Camperdown - there are sad, soot covered established apartments along Parramatta Rd - will we get more of the same? Where's the traffic going if its not being reduced enough for bus lanes to be added (the Govt said they can't fit them in as the traffic post-Westconnex won't go down enough).
This all makes it very easy to be a NIMBY. There's no faith in the process or the outcomes. Would love to know what percentage of NIMBYs are anti-development versus anti poor planning?
LIVE IN AUSTRALIA BUSH WHERE LOT OF DRIT ROADS IN NSW WHICH ALL OUT BEAUTY SYDNEY ONLY WORKING DO NOT CARE WHO LIVING IN SMALL TOWNS
I was supporting westconnex until they started to make tunnels to nowhere.
Completely unrelated, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on the recent news of Rosehill racecourse relocating for new homes and potentially a new train station as part of the Metro west.
I can't see how Parramatta Rd could be revitalised if majority of traffic then forced to pay toll road for West Connex ( not all motorists can afford toll) . We have sold our future to transurban who would have to be compensated if any future public transport is build that competes with their toll roads.
Just build more public transit! NO, I live in Glenmore Park it takes nearly 30 minutes to get a bus to Penrith station. On a good day in 30 minutes, I can get to Homebush/Strathfield on the M4. By the time I wait for a train, you get the picture. I can make the city in 1-hour driving or 1 hour 45 mins by public transit.
Lights rail for Victoria Road, Light Rail for Parramatta Road. LIGHT RAIL FOR EVERYONE!
Can I please request Adamstown???
What about making Victoria Rd also more pedestrian and PT friendly?
At the moment there is no bypass of Victoria Road and it is far too narrow to devote any of its capacity over to extra public transport.
The issue is that it's not managed by our government, the land was sold to another country. This means that money is king, or money talks and bull shit walks. What your asking with the sign changes is a simple solution, it will take years for them to implement these I'd say.
maybe charge private individuals say $10 toll and commercial users like trucks and taxis are free. Thereby pursuading trucks to use the freeways. Not sure what the shareholders would say.
The only person I trust to make a video on this topic 🆙🆙🆙
You can charge somebody $10 to catch a train, in fact the privatised Sydney airport rail link screws them for $21.80 per person each way. Talk about gouging.
it actually says m8 toll. it is pretty clear!
I'm from America, but I watch all your videos and Parramatta road is a road I hear so often it has to be a major road in the city. I imagine this rebuild will widen side walks and add bike lanes plus have mass transit!?
This rosella interchange is successful project . Aim to create traffic congestion to make drivers to give up Victoria road and use toll road . This can allow gov earn so much money ..
Not sure if you heard, they are building a mega huge carpark at a new interchange at Parramatta where ppl change to horse n buggy to go down Parramatta Rd to ease congestion. Ok, only joking and having fun
3:50 of course they dont want to make people know about the fact is toll free, the money flow will stop immediately!
my dad alw uses the cove link because he doesnt want to pay for expensive toll
Well said.
Cash poor time rich. I’m not paying tolls.
haha yep
Trains are great as a cheaper option than cars, but they are a noise issue when above ground next to low-medium density housing.
Noise and air pollution is even more of an issue when building medium density housing alongside roads (such as parramatta rd).
NIMBY due above issues, overpopulation and over culture diversification. Indian/asian/arab invasion, white flight, properties lose value, crime increase. Rich/highly educated move to richer, lower density suburbs.
And you think the B-Doubles on Parramatta Road aren't noisy?
I would much rather live next to a train line than live next to a highway. Tyres are NOISY!
Why isn't public transport free after all Tax payers are still contributing to transport with out using public transport.?
To say we should only build public transport is foolish and naive. We still need good road infrastructure for transporting goods, for tradies or anyone else who needs roads to make a living. Not all of us work in offices within city centers.
"Where to from here?"
Ban new urban highways, close the WestConnex, tear down all current urban highways except the ones that can be converted into sustainable corridors, leave only the A9~ to avoid the city by car, move as much industry/logistics as possible outside of the A9~ringroad
I disagree that it is unrealistic to have drastically fewer people commuting by car, what is unrealistic imo is to keep adding car infra and hoping a light rail line will make much of a difference (even if it indeed hopefully would remove a bit of car infra in the process)
While you are on the subject of horrible dying roads, what about Canterbury Rd? It will end up as a busy road though ugly high rise canyons.
Signage on Sydney roads could not be worse.
I think it's awesome, travelled from the west
4.18 it’s seems like they have done this on purpose to make more money or to prove a point.
All the major roads near the city seem to be designed by absolute psychopaths.
What a shitshow.
Build an underground road network that is actually very good.
...then sell it off and place such large tolls on it that people look for any way to AVOID IT. Insanity!
That is why it hasn't had that effect....money.
Money we as consumers cannot afford, so we look for ways around it.
“out of sight, out of mind” - this is typically my approach in Cities Skylines… and the results usually aren’t that great. Pretty hilarious that this was basically what happened in real life.
No to Public Transport.
All those muppets that drove past the construction for the last 3.5 years and did not bother to do just a little research on how it was going to work when opened and just want to rely on GPS to go anywhere are the problem
What's the problem? Think of all the extra under cover parking this has created...
I think transportnsw should put some bus routes on the new toll road, for passengers who don’t want to take the train.
Not the most complex interchange in the world, not even close!
The same people complaining about congested roads are the same people that complain bike sharing companies are bad, cyclists should pay rego, and any alternative transport like escooters should not be legalised. Australia says a lot of things but it's all really BS. They don't care about the environment or alternative transport options or getting gas guzzling cars off the road. It's about corruption and raising money via toll roads and speed cameras.
9 years. 17 billion dollars. Doesn't work. Can only laugh at this point.
I'm waiting for overhigh trucks to get stuck in the Rozelle interchange Westconnex tunnels spegghti junction.
The government will shoit you down for suggesting the words no toll or toll free on a sign to direct motorists to use the iron cove bridge.
You should temporarily change your TH-cam channel name to "Building Awfully"
Like your light rail route idea.
What I do think is, given the amount of rail trackwork, signal failures , bus strikes & changes to bus timetables where shortage of drivers, accidents etc causing the cancellation and delays of public transport services. - residents should have alternative forms of public transport to get them to where they have to go & should not be inconvenienced by eg there is a signal fsilure somewhere amd the entire rail network is shut down but there is no rail replacement bus service so what is suggested? work from home or catch an Uber - not good enough.
Make sure you go to Chong Ching. The transport is pretty good 👍 no English there
Great video and long-time viewer.
I work in the PPP space on the private side (no, not for TCL) and whilst I do agree TCL have a monopoly in the toll road space some of the broader statements about PPPs aren't entirely correct.
Yes risk is moved from the public sector to the private in the form of loan the government has taken out from the private side, the concession and construction risk is also transferred (ie operational risk). And the public sector is still in debt to the private lenders.
Not to mention PPPs have great use in other public infrastructure not just roads, for example in aus (amongst hospitals, schools, convention centres, housing, waste treatment etc) the Melbourne HCMT and metro tunnel are both PPPs, gold coast light rail, southern cross station and so on.
If you want to explore PPPs in transport I would love to provide input and help out on a video.
Cheers!!
I think part of the issue is not recognising that the westconnex (and surrounding locations on the signs) are NOT the destinations of the vehicles transiting through it. Don’t tell me “drummoyne” or “city” on the signs, instead: TELL ME *where* I’m going through the maze - “Gladesville Bridge”, or “Westbound M4”.
But wah, how will the investors make their money if we weren’t confusing drivers into taking longer tolled routes instead of the most logical ones?
Sydney doesn’t deserve to be so corruptly governed, on all levels. There’s just too much money to be scammed that no one on top can make changes for the greater good.
With our gdp for Sydney making us basically a top 20 country per capita, the cronyism and corruption is staggering
Agreed. We need a government that stops thinking about short-term gain instead of long-term.
The state Liberal party took it to a whole new level.
@@BuildingBeautifully The government we have now only does two things:-
1. Opens projects that were built by the previous government.
2. Has cancelled any projects not already started.
Jo Haylen is absolutely bloody useless.
I got my driver's licence in 1963. Paramatta Road was like that then.
People unhappily stuck in traffic should always remember “you are traffic”. People always think the traffic is everyone else.
I think the Rozelle interchange should be renamed the Gladys in honour of her contribution to badly designed roads.
I would like to see a light rail super-loop along the full length of Parramatta Road and Victoria Road with crossovers along Silverwater Road, Olympic Park and Homebush Bay Drive/ Concord Road. This would support higher densities, connect Sydney University, RPAH, WSU, Top Ryde City etc and convert these roads into something closer to boulevards with urban renewal. This could interconnect with train stations such as West Ryde and Strathfield and new metro stations such as Burwood North, Olympic Park etc
While your light rail plan sounds a bit too ambitious, I agree with the general idea that we need more light rails. Would absolutely support ones on Parra and Victoria Roads.
Get out of your car. I'm far from a fan of either Shitney Trains / Buses but they're better than sitting in a car in traffic.
lol to be fair, I watched some of the emergency meeting and many of the people were just residents who want to get in and out of their street. One poor bloke was told his street will be fully good to go by 2028. He seemed a bit upset.
Before Sydney becomes like Los Angeles or Texan cities with crappy public transport and overuse on cars...we need to ramp up PT frequency everywhere and force drivers to pay additional fees per KM they drive, with exceptions for the following:
-People in postcodes more than 1km away from a train station/major bus routes
-Families with kids under 12
-Families caring for elderly/disability
-People with a disability
-People who drive for (NOT TO) work
Sydney needs to become a public transport city like tokyo...and NIMBYS and anti TOD people can move to rural Australia
I’m so happy moving back to Sydney after twenty years
And couldn’t find a house at Balmain. Instead bought at south coogee 😂😂😂😂 I’m soooooo happy. Thank you.
I walk everywhere and even to the Westfield which is a big hike.
Hi Sharath, tonight I went to an event organised by Inner West Council where members of the community spoke to Transport for NSW including Howard Collins. It was a very interesting meeting and the council is going to set up an independent advisory board made out of experts in the local community to work on fixing Victoria Road. It was a very interesting meeting and it would’ve been great if you came!
Howard is a great person but the best puppet for any transport privatisation project, thanks Gladys.
The whole west connex & that interchange at Leichardt are expletive ing nightmares!!!! "Turn left" & there are 2 lefts what are you meant to do with that? Sydney's roads have become an expletive ing nightmare. I wish I had never come back to Sydney
@@isaiah513623 two lefts -don’t make a right.
Oof couldn’t be there as I’m travelling right now. Keep me posted though as I’d love to be involved in the future!
As always very independently biased panel I am sure
Part of the issue is that in the original design much of the city bound traffic exited at Camperdown. To save money this exist was cancelled and no alternative arrangments were made. Very short sighted. The Rozelle interchange was never going to work and the City of Sydney tried to tell the LNP Government 6 years ago.
In addition there is going to be more traffic coming into the system when the extension to Kogarah is completed.
Having 10 lanes go down to just 4 on the Anzac Bridge never made sense and we all knew this years ago. And so here we are now 🙄
When the Sydney light rail could have been build five times over for the cost of this disaster, there's no arguing that the Rozelle Interchange is one of the biggest wastes of money in recent years. They spent $16 billion to make traffic worse.
But their donors got funded so win win!
The lockdown has scared a lot of people off public transport, Our energy bills are too high due to net zero insanity and the increase in immigration is causing the housing crisis. We have a rail network that has been divided between public and private and are not compatible and a tram that runs up the middle of the CBD that I can walk faster than and bicycle lanes to further hinder traffic flow. If you are carrying tools or are delivery driver going into the city is a nightmare.
Why not move the workplaces closer to where people live rather than everyone going into the city?
I thought the 3 stages equalled $30B?
@@HenryKlausEsq. Corruption has no budget
@@seanworkman431 "a tram that runs up the middle of the CBD that I can walk faster than..." No so much now, but true when the tram was first introduced, thanks to failure of traffic controllers to properly coordinate traffic lights in their favour, prioritising cars instead.