Woy Woy Rd would be upgraded

A complete upgrade of Woy Woy Rd, including a tunnel under the railway line at Bulls Hill. would occur within the next 25 years, if a plan supported by NSW Business Chamber Central Coast is adopted.

The business chamber in partnership with 10,000 Friends of Greater Sydney has released a blueprint on the long-term future of the Central Coast, entitled "Towards a Sustainable NSW Central Coast Region".

The blueprint outlines the opportunities and challenges facing the Central Coast over the next 40 years.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that it also contained plans for the "gradual construction of an independent highway linking Woy Woy to the M7 in western Sydney".

"The message to Government is simple; we need urgent action on transport and congestion before its strangles our region," NSW Business Chamber regional manager Ms Mary Doherty said in a media release last week.

"Long term investment in road and public transport will unleash significant economic opportunity for the region."

Ms Doherty said the key to the strategy was the development of three distinct Central Coast precincts: coastal tourism and residential precinct, central industrial, employment and residential precinct and the western agricultural, resources and rural residential precinct.

The strategy found that 82 per cent of workers from the region choose to travel to work by car, less than 10 per cent travel by train and only 1.5 per cent travel by bus.

It also found that train travel had declined by 15 per cent since 2001 and that between 2001 and 2006, households in the Central Coast with three cars jumped 26 per cent with car ownership now outgrowing population growth.

The strategy stated that the six key infrastructure issues that were constraining the Coast were ineffective public transport, constrained regional road network, inadequate fast access to Sydney and Newcastle CBDs, lack of integration, inadequate funding and a lack of leadership.

NSW Business Chamber Central Coast and 10,000 Friends of Greater Sydney developed an action plan of six strategies to confront the infrastructure and economic issues facing the Central Coast over the next 25 years.

The strategies included integrating land use and transport planning, fostering economic growth of the region, reversing the growth of car travel with improved public transport, encouraging active transport and improving intra-regional connectivity and inter-regional connectivity.

"This strategy is a wake up call for the future planning and development of our regional economy," said Ms Doherty.

"If we continue on our current course of under investment in infrastructure we will end up in a traffic nightmare that will be very hard to awake from.

"Sydney is not the only region to be facing traffic congestion issues, the problem exists in the Central Coast and it is very real.

"We need to act now to ensure that the Central Coast has the opportunity to grow and develop and not be restrained by traffic gridlock.

"It's very worrying to think that one day there could be more cars on the central coast then people.

"Over 80 per cent of Central Coast residents driving to work is a shocking statistic and shows that our public transport isn't up to scratch.

"We need to reverse this trend and take pressure off our roads.

"Considering the rising costs of petrol and the impact of climate change, an integrated and fast moving public transport system makes sense.

"While the shift in focus to public transport is very important for our transport future, we can't ignore investment in our road network.

"Roads will continue to play a very important role as links between town centres and to Sydney and Newcastle.

"The strategy we have announced is a comprehensive plan to build on and dramatically improve our existing infrastructure."

Press release, 8 Apr 2008 NSW Business Chamber Central Coast