It's the CBD Metro, stupid!

Here's a picture of Nathan Rees' proposed CBD Metro.

Apart from the fact that it's a 9km-$4bn white elephant (until they extend it) there are a couple of noteworthy features:

It is designed to act as a north-south line through the CBD to relieve pressure from the existing city circle loop. Although someone will have to explain to me why you'd get off a train that takes you to Wynyard via Central and Town Hall to get on a metro that takes you to Wynyard via Central and Town Hall.

It uses the Metro-Pitt line orientation. This is a zone under the CBD along Pitt St that was originally quarantined to cater for the CBD rail tunnel for the Chatswood to Redfern link. The project was unofficially scrapped along with the Southwest and Northwest rail projects but the underground zone is still being held by the government. Thank God for cancelled rail projects!

Nathan Rees is obviously pretending this project has merit to try and trick Infrastructure Australia in paying for the first $4bn of their failed North West Metro.

It has a station near the new Barangaroo development. Any guesses when that one will get off the ground?

It's northern end can be extended when pigs fly if they decide to resurrect the North West Metro. It's southern end can be extended in your great-grandchildren's lifetimes as part of the proposed Western Metro.

It runs under Glebe Island and uses the area as a construction site for the project. This will delay the redevelopment of Glebe Island. (I wrote about that here.)

It will be an extremely convenient public transport solution for residents in northern Pyrmont who choose not to take the five minute walk to the CBD across the Pyrmont Bridge.

It will have a Park-and-Ride carpark at Rozelle so commuters in the North West can simply drive to Rozelle, park and enjoy a short six minute ride into the CBD. (Yes, that last one was a joke. Unfortunately the others weren't.)