Dear Lord Mayor,

WalkSydney is a community group working to make it easier, safer and more pleasant to walk in Sydney. With a growing population we need to ensure people can easily walk to public transport, local shops and services, and shared transport options. The proposed southern entrance at Erskineville Station provides another opportunity to achieve those outcomes.

WalkSydney supports the current proposal to install a southern entrance at Erskineville Station, which will significantly improve pedestrian access to the station, especially for residents living in the Ashmore estate area. We thank the Lord Mayor for your advocacy in this matter.

With the new concourse there is an opportunity to also provide access on the south-western side through Kirsova No 2 reserve. This would benefit residents of streets such as George, Victoria, Pleasant Ave, Prospect, Morrissey, Lambert, Rochford and others.

It appears however that TfNSW is ruling out this proposal at this stage due to concerns about disturbance to the children’s playground within Kirsova No 2 reserve.

This need not be a concern. Pedestrian traffic usually increases safety through “eyes on the street”. This idea (from Jane Jacobs) has been validated numerous times in the literature. With appropriate lighting, fencing, and security cameras safety should be ensured. With careful design and placement of the access points, there should be enough space for a pedestrian path to skirt a fenced-off playground.

Another concern is the narrow width of footpaths on George St. Recall the current situation involves pedestrians walking the entire length of George St to reach the existing northern entrance. This side entrance would reduce that distance walking on narrow footpaths by about half.

A few minutes shaved off a journey has the potential to shift many commuters from private vehicles to public transport, gradually reducing the need for on-street parking. This creates the opportunity to re-allocate space from parked cars to more green space that would compensate for any losses to Kirsova No 2.

We hope that you could support this proposal for an extra entrance by writing to Transport for NSW to encourage them to reconsider the current plans.

Thank you for taking the time to read our comments.