Bring Fast Rail to the Festival City

More than 50,000people ignored Sydney's wet start to summer to revel in the exotic and excitinginaugural Parramasala, with sold out shows and spectacular outdoorentertainment. In its first year this magic celebration of South Asian artsdrew crowds to Parramatta, joining a huge turnout of locals.

Parramatta had thepopulation and the facilities to stage the events and the atmosphere around thecity was one of excitement and with a sense of community that once again definedParramatta as the "festival city". 

Yet, at the same time,there are fears that the federal government will leave Parramatta off the routeof the proposed East Coast Fast Rail network. That is, the sixth largest CBD inAustralia, the gateway to the economic and social powerhouse that is WesternSydney and the demographic epicentre of greater Sydney, not certain to be onthe East Coast Fast Rail line. Surely that is simply out of the question.

The government hascommissioned a $20 million feasibility study for the Fast Rail due to becompleted by mid 2012. Presumably this means that there is a possibility thatthe project might not be feasible, which itself, beggars belief. To this daythere is no direct rail link connecting Melbourne/Canberra/Sydney, the threemajor centres of commerce and government in the country and that is a nationaldisgrace. How could a direct fast train link through those centres and on toBrisbane not be feasible?

And yet we have towait another two years and $20 million dollars to establish that something 50years overdue is a workable idea. Of course it is, and adding Parramatta to theline will only make it more so.