Funding

1. Switch roads funding to rail. Every measure below should be paid for firstly by taking the necessary money from the roads budget. Roads have received a disproportionate level of funding for years. It is time to redress the imbalance.

2. Declare a moratorium on new roads in Sydney. This means abandoning the Western Sydney Orbital, which will induce a massive increase in vehicle kilometres travelled - the complete opposite of what we need. Compensation payable to contractors can be minimised by offering them construction contracts on the rail projects set out below.

Railways

3. Commence work immediately on the full Parramatta-Chatswood Rail Link, not just the Epping-Chatswood end.

4. Upgrade the Parramatta-Epping part of the Rail Link to enable it to carry freight. (There is no problem carrying freight through underground tunnels; merely a reluctance by freight rail operators to use electric locomotives in city areas.)

5. Plan new freight railway lines in Western Sydney, starting with investigation of a link between the southern and western lines through the Wetherill Park / Smithfield / Eastern Creek industrial areas.

Transitways

6. Abandon plans to build the North-West Transitway as a busway. The Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway cost $258.1m - a quarter of a billion dollars for a new bus route. There are cheaper, quicker ways of providing bus routes as an interim measure while new railways are built.

7. Institute new bus routes along the proposed North-West Transitway corridor within a year, using bus only and bus priority measures on existing roads. There is no need to build new roads for buses. We simply have to make more efficient use of the roads we already have. 

8. Spend the money set aside for the North-West Transitway on building the transitway as a light rail system.

Buses 

9. On all 3 lane roads in Sydney, progressively set aside the kerb side lane for buses, taxis and couriers only. Offer new bus routes along the bus-only / bus priority lanes to Government and private operators, on short-term, 5 year contracts, with the Government buying the buses, and leasing them to the operators, so that operators do not carry the risk of capital loss if the bus routes fails.

10. In the first contract, provide a Government guarantee to the operator which ensures a minimum payment covering wages, fuel and maintenance costs. This leaves the operator at risk only as to administrative overheads, but retains their incentive to seek a profit.