Renewed calls for Chatswood to Dee Why metro

Fresh from being re-elected, Mackellar MP Jason Falinski is campaigning for a metro line to run from Chatswood to Dee Why, which would alleviate Manly-Warringah roads and improve travel times.

He is lobbying Transport Minister Andrew Constance to resurrect a metro plan that was cancelled by the former Labor administration in 2010 for an underground line running from Chatswood past Northern Beaches Hospital to Dee Why now the T1 North Shore Line metro line is up and running.

The T1 from Berowra to Parramatta launched in April has several stops along the North Shore, including North Sydney and Chatswood. He claims the natural progression for the area is for the Northern Beaches Metro line from Chatswood to Dee Why.

“Transport for New South Wales has produced a rail plan to 2050,” he says. “Part of that includes a railway line from Chatswood to Dee Why Beach, so it's already on the map. If you want to increase capacity in a meaningful bandwidth, a metro is how you do it. It will assist 45,000 commuters which is easily more than buses and cars.” 

While there is opposition to a rail line in certain factions of the community due to a metro potentially resulting in overdevelopment, he insists people aren't opposed necessarily to high density.

“What they're opposed to is the negative impacts of high density – traffic congestion in particular,” he says. 

“So, if you're building the infrastructure to match that, then it's less of a negative. Sure, there are some people who just oppose it outright, but we've got to get the infrastructure that supports the people who are here already.”