John Watkins has been serving the Ryde district as its local member since 1995, and during that time has held a number of different portfolios in the NSW Government. Close to home though is his role as Minister for Transport, with major traffic and transport infrastructure developments underway and planned for our city.

Mr Watkins addressed nearly 100 members and guests of Ryde Business Forum, and discussed what the City could expect in 2020, drawing on the Prime Minister's comments prior to the 2020 summit and information discussed at the summit. A snapshot of his talk includes:

• Australia-wide, the major health issues will be diabetes, dementia and depression. We have an ageing population and in twelve years' time there will be twice as many people over the age of 85 as there are now
• In the Ryde Local Government Area there are currently 97,000 residents. This number will grow exponentially with the increase of medium and high density housing (in comon with many areas of Sydney). This will have a significant impact on traffic and transport requirements
• More than 37% of Ryde's population was born overseas, and this percentage is increasing rapidly. It is well above the NSW and Australian average
• Unemployment in the area is below the national average; Ryde has a high percentage of white collar and professional occupations
• The crime rate is likely to fall with the ageing population. It is already falling
• Health and Transport will be the two major issues for the state goverment

On the subject of health Mr Watkins stated that Ryde Hospital was undergoing refurbishment and Royal North Shore would also be renovated and refurbished.

He then spoke about the current status of transport projects in Ryde. Train stations at Meadowbank, West Ryde and Eastwood have been upgraded or are being upgraded to provide easy access for commuters. There are dedicated bus lanes on major roads (eg Epping Road). The Rail Link will be completed later this year. And of course there is the Metro...

The North West Metro project is a hot topic, with plans for a 38km rail network bringing commuters from Rouse Hill through Epping and down through the City to Victoria Road and then into the CBD. This is an ambitious project, and the biggest the state government has agreed on to date at a proposed cost of $12.5billion. It is currently inits Project Definition Phase which involves refining the alignment and station locations, identifying further land requirements and commencing the assessment of the environmental impacts of the project. A Project Overview Report will be prepared at the conclusion of this phase and is expected to be put on public exhibition for comment in late 2008. Seventeen new easy access stations with interchanges between Sydney's existing transport services (including bus, rail and light rail) are to be constructed along the route

Construction is planned to begin in 2010, with parts of the line operational by 2015 and the entire line functional by 2017. Epping station will be a major junction for this service, with commuters able to move to the existing heavy rail network. The Metro will principally be a tunnel line, so there will be minimum disruption to existing transport infrastructure while the tunnel is being drilled. Mr Watkins said there would be at least two drilling machines at once being used on the tunnel and engineers were confident that the tunnel would be completed on target.

Mr Watkins explained the concept of the Metro line and its rolling stock. "It's not a light rail network. It's actually a heavy rail network but differs from the existing network in that there will be less congestion and a faster service. The double decker carriages on the heavy rail network are slow to load and unload, causing congestion at stations. The Metro is a single deck heavy rail. It will operate more frequently than the double deckers, has three doors per carriage as opposed to the two the double deckers have, has less seating, travels faster and carries more people," he said.

He likened the system to European metropolitan rail systems in terms of on time service, commuter capacity and faster movement of commuters on and off the carriages. The mention of 'lesser seating' drew questions from the floor - would commuters be expected to stand for the entire projected forty minutes of the journey from Rouse Hill to the CBD? No, said Mr Watkins. "Studies show that seats should be available for commuters from the North West through to about Ryde. If a train is too full, there will be another along very shortly. It should only take about twenty minutes to get from Ryde to the CBD, and people will stand for up to twenty minutes without complaining. We don't expect people to stand for forty minutes."

Mr Watkins said that in short the metro can run more trains than the existing heavy rail system - in full functionality it has double the capacity of a double decker system on the same route.

Click here for external link to TIDC for more information on this project.

In the meantime, buses and the existing rail network would have to cope with the growing number of commuters from the northwest through Ryde. A question was asked about buses from a Macquarie Park employer, who stated buses were full during peak hour and his staff were having problems getting on to them. Was the government planning to introduce more buses in the region? Mr Watkins responded that the M2 corridor is growing at 20% per year, and the government was trying to put extra buses on routes in the area as soon as possible.

A question was also raised about the 24-hour status of bus lanes on Epping Road. With the Lane Cove Tunnel open and the bus lanes in place, drivers have only one lane available each way on this major thoroughfare - a situation that is causing bigger headaches each day for motorists who need to use the road locally and don't need to be funnelled into the tunnel. Why were the bus lanes still out of bounds to motorists in non-peak times such as after 9pm? Or when buses ceased to run in the early hours of the morning? Mr Watkins responded that it could be confusing for motorists by putting hours of operation on the bus lanes; it was easier to run them 24 hours.

The financial state of the Lane Cove Tunnel itself was raised by a guest and Mr Watkins reassured guests that "if the Tunnel goes broke, there will be no cost to taxpayers".

Lastly, but for lovers of a less stressful way of travel not leastly, the issue of ferries to Parramatta was raised. The ferry service between Circular Quay and Parramatta now terminates at Rydalmere, and Mr Watkins confirmed that silt in the Parramatta River west of Rydalmere is the reason. The silt had been removed twenty years ago, but the river has silted up again. Experts have recommended that owing to chemicals and contamination that may be in the silt from years of industrial use on the riverbanks that the river not be dredged again. The government is looking into vessels which may be appropriate to use on this popular service. The current fleet of Rivercats, while they are minimum wake boats, actually touch the riverbed at low tide.

Our thanks to Mr Watkins for his generosity with his time in addressing our members and guests, and to Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies and the fantastic team at Curzon Hall for making this breakfast such a success. Pics from the day are below.