The existing public transport concentrates on the older areas (east of about Lidcombe); much of the newer West is not well-served. Government-owned buses serve the city and inner suburbs, many of them running along the same routes that trams used until their withdrawal in about 1956. The buses are adversely affected by the chronic traffic congestion they work in. There is an extensive railway network but it has not been expanded much since the Harbour Bridge opened in 1931. It is operated by a subsidiary of the State Rail Authority There are many privately-owned bus services, but these are organised more for the benefit of the proprietors than for the passengers. Consequently, many residents of the West are up to 2 hours from their jobs by public transport, causing great social problems.
Sydney has a famous ferry system running on the Harbour (yes, most of the boats go under the Harbour Bridge or past the Opera House!) but these do not carry enough passengers to be a significant transport force. The Darling Harbour monorail is well-publicised but insignificant.A small light rail system opened in 1997. It does not run very far. It mainly carries staff and a few patrons to the casino. An extension under Glebe to Leichhardt is under investigation. The light rail badly needs a quick connection to the city but this has been deferred until after a road tunnel is constructed under Park and William streets, which means that no useful light rail can be operational for several years. The present system exemplifies several things that can go wrong with public transport. One is that its honour system for fare collection has been destroyed by large numbers of fare evaders, with the result that vehicles usually carry a "hostess" whose real job is to sell tickets. The extra crewing costs must be detrimental to the system's financial health.
Most residents recognise that Sydney's air quality is unacceptable. The air is polluted both summer (LosAngeles-style smog) and winter (brownish NOx); prevailing winds often blow the plume a few miles out to sea in the morning and back in the afternoon. On several occasions after a few days of light winds, world-class pollution levels have been recorded in the Camden area. At least half of this air pollution comes from car exhaust emissions. Generally, the worst air is found in a 40km-diameter circle centred on Parramatta. On the other hand, the suburbs north of Mona Vale enjoy the cleanest air.
Numerous government inquiries into air quality have been conducted, all of them reporting findings similar to the above. Yet none of them has been translated into serious pro-public-transport action.
Un-coordinated growth of the city since the 1950s, combined with obsessive road-building, have resulted in a road transport system whose vehicles travel more than 30 million kilometres per day. Roads run everywhere already, but that has not stopped the roads lobby from getting over a thousand million dollars per year put into roadbuilding recently. Funds have been swelled by privately-financed roads, including the M2, the M5, the Harbour Tunnel, parts of the M4, and now the Airport Motorway (officially but inaccurately called the Eastern Distributor). In each case, the current Government has announced these roads in terms that their construction would not involve any public finance. Yet hundreds of millions more dollars has invariably been needed to "mitigate" (or more accurately, to spread) the disastrous effects of extra traffic generated when the new capacity opened. Also, the private finance receives hidden subsidies in other ways, including generous income tax concessions available to investors in these roads, and government guarantees which remove many of the risks inherent in such things. One could jocularly say that the financial and legal structures which support these projects are as wonderful as the engineering! However, oil depletion is likely to sap the profitability of these investments before long. Curiously, lobbyists pressing for roads to be built seem oblivious not only to the risk that people's travel habits might change but also to the risk that the projected traffic won't materialise. A case in point is the M2, which seemed to be carrying only about 40,000 vehicles per day after about two months' operation; the loans which built the road need more than that.
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