'It truly is a rubbish location for a railway station': move Kotara station east

The single most obvious change to make in the city's transport infrastructure is to shift almost-useless Kotara railway station, making it the transportation centrepiece of a big proposed redevelopment zone. Yet the state government has no interest in the idea.

And we all know why: it is disinclined to spend money on Newcastle.

You'll be forgiven for not knowing there is such a thing as Kotara Station. It sits in a lovely piece of suburban nowhere, within walking distance of very few homes, almost all bungalows. Hardly anyone uses it.

One kilometre east, the state and Newcastle council want to create an intense employment and residential centre right next to the rail line; it will be on and around the big site now occupied by homeware retailers, such as Bunnings. The redeveloped land will be full of businesses and high-density residential buildings - and therefore thousands of people, all coming and going.

Just across Park Avenue, Westfield Kotara, one of the busiest shopping centres in Newcastle, would become part of this zone, which is called a town centre.

Every state planner who has looked at this proposal must have seen, first, that the site was blessed with a location alongside a railway and, second, that the obvious thing to do was to move sleepy Kotara Station to it.

I bet those planners actually put their fingers on the precise station site on the map accompanying this article, between the southern ends of Orchardtown Road and Birdwood Street.

But the NSW government is not at all serious about planning for Newcastle, certainly not if spending is involved, so the 2019 scheme mentioned only that the council and Transport for NSW would improve the town centre's access to the current station.

That, presumably, meant laying a footpath.

Now the issue of Kotara Station's future site has become urgent. Commendably rushing to get more housing built, the government of Premier Chris Minns will allow construction of residential buildings of up to six storeys within 400 metres of 31 railway stations in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. Seven are in Newcastle. One is Kotara.

If that goes ahead, a rise in density around Kotara Station will become an excuse not to move it. So the state must drop Kotara from the list, or upwardly rezone only land to its east, towards the ideal future site.

Actually, it's hard to imagine why anyone thought the current Kotara Station was a candidate for this policy. The land around it is hilly, discouraging people from walking to and from a public transport stop. Access from the south requires crossing about 100 metres of park, a great deterrent in darkness, especially for women.

Worst of all, the catchment area will forever be hemmed in by nearby Blackbutt Reserve.

It truly is a rubbish location for a railway station.

The ideal location further east, on the other hand, has an expanse of flat land to its south, the site of the future town centre. It has almost continuous residential, commercial or light industrial development within 800 metres' walk, the planning rule-of-thumb for a public transport catchment area.

A low hill is on the New Lambton side, but it would conveniently take train users up to the level of the station's foot bridges, so they wouldn't climb stairs on that side. Beyond the hill is mostly flat land, including Blackbutt Village shops on Orchardtown Road.

Transport for NSW says there are opportunities for improving access to Kotara. But "relocation of Kotara train station is not a proposal that is currently being considered, with other investments in public and active infrastructure and services in the area likely to provide a better return on investment."

And it must be admitted that the government of Chris Minns is trying hard to repair the state budget.

A reasonable guess for the cost of new station would be $40 million, says Garry Glazebrook, a retired transport consultant and urban planner.

But the government could recover the money by imposing a charge on nearby landowners when they sold their properties at prices enhanced by the station. Even if the charge were limited to 500,000 square metres of nearby land, $80 per square metre could pay for the station. Much higher charges have been imposed in Sydney.

Because the station would bring convenience, more people would want to live in and near the new town centre, so the buildings there could be larger and the state could achieve its important aim of increasing housing supply.

The town centre could include considerable social and affordable housing, many of whose residents would particularly appreciate rail access.

There's another important reason for shifting Kotara Station: it should become a stop on a tramline to Charlestown.

When Transport for NSW produced plans for four Newcastle tramlines in 2018, it lazily proposed that each should run along an arterial road, crippling traffic capacity. The contemplated Charlestown line, unbelievably, was supposed to follow (and mangle) the Pacific Highway from Merewether.

Two years ago I suggested a much better route, one that would exploit our coal-mining heritage.

The line could reach the new Kotara Station from Broadmeadow by following the main rail corridor.

Then it would divert into residential Kotara along the route of the old Waratah Coal Company's Gully Line, which is now mostly a reserve.

At the end of the reserve it would be just below Charlestown. It would climb the hill, perhaps needing fairly costly engineering works, and thereby link our two major shopping centres, the redeveloped Broadmeadow precinct and the city centre.

That's the sort of transport system that the state should be planning for Newcastle - if only it were serious about planning for Newcastle at all.