Sydney to Newcastle and Canberra Fast Rail

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) were seeking a service provider to deliver land use planning, strategy and design to support a Fast Rail Sydney to Canberra and Fast Rail Sydney to Newcastle. The scope of work comprised two components, these being:

• Package 1: Land use input and economic assessment – Sydney to Newcastle corridor
• Package 2: Corridor narrative and strategic urban design –Sydney to Newcastle and Sydney to Canberra corridors.

HillPDA project managed a consortium which included Cox and LUTI to provide a successful outcome for TfNSW. Specifically, HillPDA were engaged to provide:

A discussion paper 1 – Corridor Vision – Socio-demographic changes.

• This built on the Corridor Vision developed during the Strategic Business Case phase, delivering an updated and detailed narrative describing the socio-demographic characteristics of communities in the corridor now and how they may change in future with the Project

A Take-up analysis report.

• The report estimated the residential and employment uplift eventuating from each project and validate the take-up of dwellings to ensure market viability and absorption were achieved.

Project outcome

HillPDA prepared comprehensive visual outputs which meet the requirements of TfNSW. Specifically, we provided:

A discussion paper, which:

• Discussed the socio-demographic characteristics of settlements along the corridor today, in future without Project, and in future with Project.
• Identified benchmark from precedent projects and describe specific changes that could potentially occur in the corridor.
• Outlined the implications from the demographic changes to communities and to service planning.

A take-up analysis report, which:

• Provided a review of local residential property dynamics (price, sales rates, take-up)
• Case study analysis of similar rail corridors to determine historic capacity of the market to absorb new stock
• Likely take-up (dwellings and jobs) and capacity of each rail corridor and option.

Services:

• Project management
• Socio-demographic analysis and forecasting
• Residential property dynamics
• Projected take-up analysis (employment and dwellings)
• Case studies.

Client: Transport for NSW
Project year:  2020

For more information, contact Nicholas Hill, Principal