Anyone looking at a rail network map for Sydney will realise some very obvious and appreciable gaps. These gaps include are the Inner West gap through Balmain, Five Dock and Drummoyne and Gladesville etc, the Eastern Suburbs gap from Bondi Junction southwards and weirdly, the Northern Beaches void.
In this current wave of 'Metro' building, which is finally an attempt to fill in the gaps, we have had the North West Metro almost but not quite connects Chatswood to Schofields and partly running over existing lines, the continuation of the Metro under the harbour and which will run over the existing Bankstown Line, and the Sydney West Metro which is an entirely new bore to the west ending at Westmead.
Due to the geography of Sydney, the whole entire of the Northen Beaches is really only served through two pinch points; being Spit Bridge and Roseville Bridge. In fact those two roads are really only served by a few arterial roads which converge at those point. To anyone with even a shred of common sense, this is a stupid system; so much so, that it was foreseen by John Bradfield more than 100 years ago but which only the barest of plans was ever made to correct this. Those plans included capacity at Wynyard Station for 8 platforms serving four lines; of which only 6 platforms were built and only two lines completed.
In place of a railway line which never was, there used to be an extensive tram network; which was ripped out by exceptionally myopic governments, and which is the reason why the Sydney Harbour Bridge since 1959 has has lanes 7 and 8 of road traffic occupy what should the space for two railway tracks. In its place, a bus network was installed. Very recently in the last days of the Berejiklian Government, the operation of these buses was privatised and now Keolis Downer operates what can be best described as a fourth rate service, which was worse than the government-run buses, which was worse than the trams, which was worse then the full scale railway line which was proposed but never was.
In conjunction with massive amounts of opposition to the building of apartments on top of the Woolworths at Cremorne, there have been half-hearted suggestions that the Northern Beaches should also have a Metro. The best proposal that I have seen for this would be to bore directly under Military Rd, then pop out at Parrawi Reserve and continue via viaduct/bridge over the Spit, and then back underground roughly following the route of the B1 bus. As with any of these proposals it sounds bonkers for about ten seconds and then immediately almost criminal that it hasn't already been done.
However, I have recently heard of a proposal which sounds like someone's fantasy got out of hand but which upon a second look, might actually be that mad kind of genius which Sydney needs. That proposal is...
The Northern Beaches L.
What is an L?
An L is short for "Elevated", and by "Elevated" we actually mean "Elevated Railway". In the date 19th century, they were all the rage in the United States, with many Ls being converted from steam to electric in the 1910s. The idea is genius because it's so simple. By putting the trains on an elevated set of tracks high above everyone else, regular road traffic runs underneath and this alleviates the pressure on both.
Of course the obvious downside is that everyone on board an L can see into the windows of people up on the first or second floor of the buildings which line the street and the people who live first or second floor of the buildings which line the street have L trains whizz by them every six minutes. Then again, a road like Military Road is already so unpleasant that people already do not live in those first or second floors of the buildings which line the street. Then again, the unsaid truth is that this already is the case for practically everyone already living next to a train line as it is. The other unsaid truth is that the B1 bus already uses double decker buses; so you can already peer into the first or second floors of the buildings which line the street and nobody complains about that.
The other downside of an L is that as the L creates a quasi-tunnel underneath itself, it will become darker down underneath the L. I note that in places like Chicago and New York which have retained an L, they are built on lattice type sleeper structures; which means that dappled sunlight does come through. It also naturally means that the height of traffic passing underneath the L is limited in height, which affects the accessibility of big trucks. Now this could be solved in the planning stages by making the L already sufficiently high enough so that all trucks of decent height can pass under, or by rerouting those trucks to alternative routes.
Here's the genius though. Double decker buses would not need to exist. About 2000 cars per hour would not need to exist. All of the passengers who currently clog the roads on the many buses that act like a line of millipedes and great hordes of cars, would all disappear upon opening of the L. People individually and traffic in the collective follow similar rules to water and electricity in that they follow the paths of least resistance. If the L provides a less stressful experience than sitting in traffic for 68 minutes (which is the current time from Mona Vale to Wynyard), then people will use the L.
The thing about Sydney's very tory motorways, is that almost to a note, they simply do not make traffic better anywhere in Sydney. Motorways in Sydney are purely toll extraction devices. Railways on the other hand, by virtue of being vehicles limited by tracks, are perfect for cutting underneath the mass hub-bub and chaos of what's happening above; which is why going underground is an excellent option or if you can not go underground then going above is the next best thing.
One of the really really fun things with the idea of an L is that the Northern Beaches void is purely that, a void. It is currently an abyss filled with nothing. This is not even half a hole but a whole hole. We could either fill the hole with 9-car Metro Trains like the North West Metro, or fill it with 5-car trams like the L2 and L3 in the Eastern Suburbs and presumably what will be the L4 from Westmead and what used to be the T7 Carlingford Line. With a void, you can run as many imaginary trains and trams through it as you like.
Admittedly I say this as a deeply frustrated commuter who has worked in Mosman for 20 years. I repeatedly find it idiotic that we can not get from Spit Junction to the City in less than 50 minutes, on an alarmingly regular basis. I could very easily be part of the car traffic but instead I take one of many many buses; from multiple starting points. However in the evening, if I leave the office at 05:00pm, it will often be after 05:30pm before I can even board a a bus. The B1 bus is frequently packed to the eyeballs and displays the message "Sorry Bus Full"; which is partly the result of a wholly inadequate public transport service and partly the result of Keolis Downer wanting to spin a profit and recducing the number of services by 60% in many cases. What used to be a 6 minute service is now a 15 or 20 minute service if you are lucky, and it is still being asked to carry the same number of people.
This is where the genius of an L truly shines. L services would be the only thing up there. They don't have to contend with the rabble below and instead of being 1-car or virtual 2-car for a double decker bus, a single 9-car L service could replace many buses by itself. If they were driverless robots they could run practically at saturation as well. I think that it would be cheaper than trying to bore a tunnel and I think that the required engineering might be easier as well. All of the electricity carriage could be done in the cavity immediately under the structure; which could also double as carriage for everyone else's electricity and street lighting. Plus it seems like a nice way of ushering a new steam-electro-punk-retro-future.
If only we could dare to dream. I love the idea of an L.
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