BIG SYDNEY WORK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20625, 28 May 1935, Page 5

BIG SYDNEY WORK.

Completion of Underground Railway. ROUND CIRCULAR QUAY. (Special to the “Star.” SYDNEY, May 17. Apart from general questions ol public policy, one of the most interesting statements made by the Premier during the recent election campaign was a definite promise that hie Government would complete the city railway system by constructing the long delayed “loop” round .Circular Quay. The city railway lines, while they provide a splendid transit system in certain directions, are isolated and disconnected to an extent which most mi wisely impairs their public utility. The lines leading across the Harbour Bridge to the northern suburbs have no direct connection with the lines which link Sydney to the southern districts. The tunnels needed to provide the connection have been built, but the loopline to link up Hyde Park and Wynyard Square by way of Circular Quay has not been constructed. Consequently our railway system is in this anomalous position that people coming in from the south are compelled to cross through the heart of the city, usually on foot, to reach the railway station at which they can start again on a northward journey. The amount of trouble and expense resulting through the congestion of traffic and the waste of valuable time is inconceivably great; and the only reason that the required loop-line has not been built is simply that the depression hit the city and the State so hard that we have not been able to find the money. Quay’s Loss of Business. All these things have been realised here for years past, and there is a Circular Quay Association which has never ceased to agitate for this great city improvement. Of course this particular organisation is chiefly concerned with the lamentable fact that when the Harbour Bridge was built, trade naturally drifted away from Circular Quay; and as the link between eastern and western lines was left unfinished, the

Quay, as a business centre, has collapsed altogether. Business has declined, property values have fallen heavily, and the whole waterfront area, once busy and prosperous, has sunk from the first to the third grade in the , city’s commercial scale. All these changes have reacted most injuriously upon the whole metropolitan system, and if nothing were in view but the restoration of Circular Quay, the money to be found for the new loop line would be well worth expending. Widespread Benefits. But there is a great deal more than this to be said on the subject, and it Ls much to the credit of the Circular Quay Association that it has publicly recognised Mr. Steven’s promise, but as a concession to purely local interests, but aa an earnest of a progressive municipal policy which cannot fail to benefit the whole city at once. Mr. H. K. Trethawan, M.L.C., who is president of the association, in acknowledging Mr. Stevens’ pledge, made out an impressive series of reasons to justify it. He points out that the construction of the loopline will provide reproductive employment for large bodies of men; that it will save the taxpayers interest charges to the amount of £1,000,000 a year on the dead capital represented by the uncompleted railway works; that it will increase the city rail revenue; that it will raise property values and render saleable large municipal residues in the Rocks area and on the waterfront, thus adding vastly to the city’s resources; and it will benefit nearly ail the northern suburbs and the marine suburbs along the harbour foreshores. This is an imposing list of arguments which seem amply sufficient to validate the policy that the Premier has. now decided to adopt; but the convincing nature of the case now made out for the city loop can hardly fail to prompt the cynical question why this work, admittedly so important, and, indeed, indispensable to the city’s progress, has been so long delayed.