The blueprint for Sydney's long-promised Metro West reveals the NSW Government has scrapped a proposal for a station at Rydalmere in the city's north west.
The NSW Government today released the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Metro West project, which details exactly how the multi-billion dollar project will be constructed.
Along with the scrapped station, the EIS revealed 154 private, commercial and industrial properties would be acquired by the state government to accommodate the Metro West and its construction.
The Metro line will stretch from the Sydney CBD to Parramatta and Westmead and will aim to reduce congestion on roads and the crowded T1 western train line.
It will include stations at The Bays Precinct, Five Dock, Burwood North, North Strathfield, Olympic Park, Parramatta and Westmead.
The State Government had been considering whether to build a metro station at Rydalmere, in the city's rapidly expanding north west.
But it was ruled it out as an option due to the increased cost of extending the line to Rydalmere, as well as the increase in commuter travel time.
Sydney Metro chief executive John Lamonte said the business case for Rydalmere did not stack up.
"It's an extra 3 kilometres of tunnelling," he said.
"That just added more distance … but it also adds a lot of [travel] time so those factors counted against it."
"It was always only an option and … it just didn't stack up."
Mr Lamonte said the government was still considering the option of a metro station at Pyrmont and would factor in the cost, rail alignment and depth of tunnels into the decision.
He said the government would try and reach a settlement with owners before it resorted to a compulsory acquisition process.
The EIS will be available for public viewing for eight weeks and Mr Lamonte said expressions of interest were already being sought for the tunnelling component.
"We will start construction this year, major construction next year and we'll have a tunnel-boring machine in the ground before the end of 2022."
The final cost of the project has yet to be determined but the Government has earmarked $6.4 billion to start construction.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the project's final budget would be determined once all the major contracts were awarded.
