Pulling out all stops for a long-term tram network

Not far, mind you. Just to Broadmeadow. The state is hardly inclined to plan the entire network that will be needed later this century as Newcastle grows in population and densifies.

So let's start the work for it.

Long-term planning is needed to reserve land for the lines, to adjust zoning to exploit them, and to let property owners know what to build. And because we'll need an interconnecting network, designing one line without also deciding where others will go would be a mistake.

The whole thing should be settled now.

For example, as it plans the extension to Broadmeadow, Transport for NSW needs to consider that the line should eventually be one of two east-west routes that will go through that locality - one on the way to Wallsend and one to John Hunter Hospital.

The agency should design both lines now, and in doing so consider the connecting north-south route that will also be needed at Broadmeadow - and therefore the routes connecting with that one, and their connections, and so on.

The map accompanying this article is an attempt at a concept design for a complete network that might be finished by the end of the century. Expanded from one I proposed in 2021, it's not a suggestion for building anything now but, rather, just for preparing to build.

We don't need all those tram routes now. Happily, we still get around easily in cars, and our current points of road congestion can be fixed. But we will need much stronger public transport later.

This proposal no doubt can be improved. Some readers might indeed offer suggestions. Then we'll be collectively doing the job that Transport for NSW should be doing for us.

There isn't space here to describe the proposed network in detail - each major line probably needs its own article - but let's talk about principles in the design.

First, it includes not only lines radiating from Newcastle Interchange; there are also cross-city links between major centres, such as the hospital, Charlestown and Dudley.

'Dudley?!' I hear you say. 'How does Dudley count as a major centre?'

Well, it will when it's eventually rezoned for vastly higher density. It and Redhead occupy the two short stretches of coast between Merewether and Blacksmiths that aren't locked up in parks. They're spectacular locations that one day will surely be put to better use than accommodating detached houses.

So the plan really is looking out many decades.

That thinking also applies to its under-harbour link to Stockton, a sleepy but wonderfully located place that should eventually be given a high-rise makeover. Its line would go to the airport and RAAF base, too.

We can assume that Warners Bay and Belmont also will see much taller and denser construction. They're developing well already and offer fairly flat land, which is important if we want people to walk to and from tram stops.

Still, the proposed network is thickest in flat inner Newcastle where there will be large, continuous areas of medium and high density housing and the greatest concentration of workplaces.

Anywhere that gets a tramline should be upwardly rezoned. For example, the suggested route to Belmont runs alongside Jewells, where bungalows near tram stops would have to make way for townhouses and flats.

The network probably should not go to suburbs west of Lake Macquarie, because they have a heavy-rail line and are unlikely to become as dense as the eastern side and inner Newcastle. It's a similar story for suburbs towards and around Maitland. And the Cessnock area should get not trams but a heavy-rail service, for which a line is already waiting and ready to go.

The suggested plan avoids destroying road capacity. Instead of using main roads, its lines mostly go through back streets and occasionally reserves - for example, parallel to and just south of Maitland Road, Mayfield.

In lackadaisically producing preliminary plans for four radial lines, Transport for NSW has drawn each of them down the middle of an arterial road. Its concept amounts to a scheme for the destruction of automobile use in inner Newcastle.

That still seems to be the mentality of the agency, whose minister is Jo Haylen.

Nonetheless, putting tramlines on major roads is often unavoidable south of John Hunter Hospital and Kotara. Because of the roughness of the terrain, the only reasonably smooth path in some places is along a ridge line that's already used for a busy motor-vehicle route. Charlestown Road is an example.

But main roads that should carry tramlines will eventually need widening anyway. They can be widened a bit more to make space for a pair of tracks.

The proposed tram plan avoids demolition as far as possible, but more buildings could be knocked down to get straighter and faster routes.

Light rail should connect with heavy rail. In the plan, it does so in seven places, including a relocated Kotara station.

Trams can run along old coal railway alignments, notably in residential Kotara for a path to Charlestown. That route would require costly engineering for trams to climb the hill, but spending the money would be justified: it would be the key to linking Charlestown with other big destinations.

A former coal line has left us with a ready-made corridor all the way from Adamstown to Belmont; it's now the Fernleigh Track. But most of it is too far inland to serve land near the coast that will be most densely redeveloped. A diversion along Burwood Road and Redhead Road would be needed.

So that's the concept. Transport for NSW should be able to produce a much better one.

Actually, I hope it can. But I seriously doubt that it will try.