Parramatta Light Rail is a project that will connect communities. Those in the media and political landscape who believe they can come and preach to locals have not lived in the area and don’t know the area. Parramatta Light Rail will connect Westmead and North Parramatta, allowing for transformative reuse of Cumberland East, what is currently a giant Health carpark. This is not about all high rises, which is not supported by Council, but about an innovation precinct that will rival those around the world. Parramatta Light Rail will connect Carlingford directly to Parramatta without the traffic of our busy roads. Parramatta Light Rail will connect the Tramway Avenue precinct to Parramatta and Westmead, with the Tramway Avenue stop being a short walking distance from the north bank of Parramatta River once the Alfred St bridge is built.

Will the construction of a transformative project come without impact? Of course not! The Parramatta Light Rail project will have business and community consultation groups to allow for consultation and feedback during the construction. One consultation group I am very familiar with, due to my operational role at a Westmead Research Institute, is a group called the Research Institutes Technical Working Group, having representation from the Research Institutes at Westmead. We have worked with Health and the Parramatta Light Rail team to provide detailed information on how Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and vibration may affect the delicate high-tech research instrumentation critical to medical research. This extensive consultation has led to the Westmead section being wire free, to reduce the EMI, hence reducing the impact to medical research at Westmead.

Will Eat St benefit from Parramatta Light Rail being at their door step? Indeed! Will there be impact during construction. Yes, there will. I propose a strategy to help customers be enticed to businesses during construction. Opal Card readers should be installed in all affected businesses. Customers who ‘Tap On’ will get a discount on their transport to/from Parramatta in the form on a general weekly discount, thus enticing them to businesses as well as using public transport to and from Parramatta. Compensation for business could also be built into this scheme.

Finally, I am pleased to note that the Active Transport Link from Carlingford to Parramatta still has a chance of being continuous at Adderton Road. Conditions of consent determined that options for Adderton Road continued to be explore. Hopefully tenders will have been asked to look at the options and come back with cost effective proposals.