Forum –
Laurie Powell’s call for a new railway station at south Woy Woy is a little puzzling (“Build a new railway station to fix crowded roads”, PP 019).
The last time I looked there was no railway line in south Woy Woy (which is where I live), so a railway station would seem, on the face of it, to be a bit superfluous.
Even if we were to consider a new station in west Woy Woy, it’s hard to see how this could be practical.
To be of any use, it would have to be too close to the existing Woy Woy station for the trains to operate efficiently.
If Mr Powell has looked at this section of track, he would see that it runs on top of a high embankment: building a station here would tax the designer’s ingenuity, and, if a parking garage is to be added on top of that, the problem is pretty well insoluble.
Unless Shoalhaven Drive is opened up, access to the station would be inadequate, and there would certainly be a significant problem in routing buses to this point.
He is right that the proper place for a parking garage is over the railway tracks.
Ms Wicks’ chimerical “fully funded” garage now turns out to be an illusory thing for which a site has not even been chosen.
The “early July” date on which we were to see a full-fledged proposal has come and gone, and we seem no closer than we were at the time of election promises past.
Choosing a site and sketching out a proposal is not an overwhelming task, and any competent agency would have had this preliminary stage well and truly finished by now.
Is it possible that the project is being dragged out, so that it can be re-announced at the next election?
The present government is big on promises (vide the pandemic response) but short on delivery, so it would be convenient to have a ready-made promise to hand for Peninsula electors.
It seems obvious that the site, when it is eventually unveiled, will be the narrow strip of railway land along Railway Street.
This ridiculously inadequate parcel will make little contribution to meeting Woy Woy’s parking demands unless the site is extended over the adjoining lines.
With this addition to the area, a substantial number of spaces could be added, and even this will barely cover existing need.
Anybody who commutes regularly to Sydney knows that there is no spare space in the existing parking garage after about 6am so we shall still be playing catch-up with no long-term idea of what to do next – a typical situation for Central Coast Council.
Instead of piffling around with relandscaping Woy Woy oval and like endeavours, how about facing up to some of the real issues that have to be dealt with.
Who knows: if we do it right, there might even be some economies in three years’ time, when Mr Hart will be but an unlamented dim memory.
Email, July 26
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy