As you say, the cities have more resources to share than the regions, so it doesn't make sense to somehow try to make people move to the regions

"Eventually" doesn't cut it

Cities are all about access. Access to career paths. Access to a medical specialist. Access to advanced education. Access to friends and family.

Design our cities for this. Don't ship people out to Dubbo.

It shocks me how many in the planning profession have no understanding why people move to big cities.

And worse still how many want to spent endless piles of taxpayer cash to fight a trend that has existed for all of human history.

Because tall buildings are scary.

The virtuous cycle of public transport:

The better it is, the more people use it.

The more people use it, the better it gets.

Major boost to M1 Metro services starts today | Sydney Metro Passengers travelling on the M1 Line are set to benefit from a major increase in services from today, making it easier to choose public transport as fuel supply pressures continue.

Love to see it.

Frequency boost for Sydney Metro!

Permanent increase from every 10 min to 7 min on weekends.

Temporary increase from every 4 min to 3.5 min in peak, using extra trains ordered for the under construction Bankstown extension.

www.sydneymetro.info/article/majo...

PENROSE, 171km from Central, is a simple rural station serving a handful of houses and a general store. It has two basic platforms with a small weatherboard waiting room on the northbound, and no shelter at all on the southbound.

The bus route sees six daily services, beating the train's four!

The north wall at Martin Pl platform level is a false wall and we know the connection will come out there. I wanna know if to transfer do you need to go up & back down, or not? It's gonna be busy, would hate to mix those crowds!

Modification 1 to Hunter Street-Commercial Tower (East) | Planning Portal - Department of Planning and Environment SSD Modifications

Fixed link: www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projec...

Upper public level, 3 escalators down from Bligh St to O'Connell St & gates

4 escalators to both stations. I worry this isn't enough, MP already gets big crowds and this is the terminus of Metro West!

Have we seen the layout of the lower floors yet?

www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projec...

Quietly released: minor revisions to Hunter St Station East OSD plans. Gives us a little peek to how it'll connect to Martin Pl Station.

Can see the connection between the stations (bottom left of first pic) is behind the gate line. It'll go to the MP platforms, don't think we yet know the layout.

Westmead is giving Adelaide Festival Centre

If you read the press release it says the design still has another year to go, so I think these are still placeholders.

Strange how little focus on over-station development there seems to be. The NW Metro also put a lot of effort into "place making" - I hope to see that repeated.

Opal readers on the wharves. There's three stops on the route, so you don't have to pass through Barangaroo.

Before, the crew just had an eftpos terminal

Love that OSD

Not saying it's a prime location, but there's a shared path and cycleway along the M4 that's half decent. It cuts under all those roads to connect this site to back streets of Harris Park

Cars make way for bikes as Sydney commuters saddle up to circumvent ‘crazy’ fuel costs The shock of the oil crisis is playing out on Australian streets, where bike sales are up and cycle lanes are busier

WOW! Car traffic on Sydney’s arterial roads down 5%, hire bike trips up 25% last month, and bike trips on key cycleway now 3 x higher than last year: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Yeah Burwood Council is weirdly obsessed with cars even though they're all for transit-oriented density.

The coolest suburb is the one with the fast, frequent, reliable public transport!

Burwood Council is extremely excited a click-bait online article called the suburb cool.

I do really appreciate that there's budget to ensure these Southern Highlands stations have neither a speck of paint nor a blade of grass out of place.

I would appreciate it more if there were budget to, you know, run trains to them.

As of last weekend, the F10 is now fully on the Opal network.

As best as I can tell, all they've done is install an Opal reader. There's still no seating, shelter or even the Transport for NSW brand 'F' lollypops.

The south exit leads to the shops. There's a few restaurants and cafes here, and a small independent supermarket. On the north side is a mock-Tudor country pub.

While it's not exactly a bustling town, I can see the station getting reasonable patronage if it saw more than a handful of trains.

The northbound platform has a small weatherboard waiting area next to a more modern shelter.

The southbound platform has a larger building with toilets and an old signal box.

I'm a big fan of the heritage wooden signs in these regional NSW stations. (2/3)

BUNDANOON, 163km from Central, is heritage station serving a small strip of shops in a small town. It has two platforms with nice landscaping, and a pedestrian crossing with boom gates. It sees both Opal trains and pre-booked Canberra trains, and it's not immediately obvious which is which (1/3)

The Cambelltown-bound platform has a weatherboard building with a waiting area and an old heritage signal box. The northbound platform has another wooden waiting area.

There's an an antiques store and cafe across the road.

It sees just 5 daily passengers, but at least it's diligently kept clean.

EXETER, 156km from Central, is a rural station serving a very small town. It has two platforms, the first gravel ones I've come across, accessed by a pedestrian crossing with boom gates.

From here on south the service is dire: only two trains in the early morning and two at night, each way. (1/2)

Never waste a good crisis. The City of Sydney took advantage of COVID to put in 'temporary' bike lanes which have since become permanent.

Now's the time for some quick, easy wins:
- Convert traffic & parking lanes to bus lanes
- Extend the time of existing bus lanes beyond peak
- Enforce them

GADIGAL, 1km from Central, is a spectacular new underground station surrounded by skyscrapers in Sydney CBD. It has two platforms accessed from a concourse at either end, each with very long escalators, lifts and gates. Each exit sits at the base of a new tower, as an integrated development (1/7)

The south exit sits at the base of another tower, this one with apartments but no shops. It surrounds a heritage pub on the corner. It has on-street seating, meaning you can finish your pint and tap-on at the gate in seconds!

Great public infrastructure and award-winning architecture combined!