In the coming year, Malcolm Turnbull will hopefully start to justify all those pictures of himself catching the train. And when he gets to working out how to justify those pictures, he will not find himself short of suggestions for things he can do for the city, and particularly for western Sydney.
When Turnbull claimed the top job in 2015, he seemed to take upon himself the mantle of the urban reformer. His vision for the city – dense, environmentally sensitive, public transport oriented – was one of the central ways in which he differentiated himself from his car-loving and train-hating predecessor.
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But, to outward appearances at least, Turnbull has done little to implement his vision in the past 15 months. The fact that he catches the train to and from meetings may, in itself, be an attractive symbol of Australian egalitarianism. And it may capture something of Turnbull's own (perhaps faded) pragmatic brand of progressivism. But the point of going into politics, of course, is not to catch the train to work: the point is to work to make the trains better.
There is impatience for something to happen. Consider what NSW Premier Mike Baird told Turnbull at a meeting of premiers in Canberra this month. Baird, who is building more roads and rail in NSW than any state leader in generations, in effect told Turnbull the federal government could be helping the state do still more.
![Illustration: Simon Bosch](/web/20161222095822im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/g/4/s/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtfv4p.png/1482317465549.jpg)
"What infrastructure can we bring forward?" Baird asked. "I think that is ultimately one of the best things that we could do in terms of driving economic growth in the next few years," he said, a day after national accounts figures revealed the economy was shrinking.
Turnbull's response, as reported at any rate, was brusque and uninspiring: "We are not an ATM."
If not an ATM, then what? Adopting the deadening nomenclature of planning bureaucracies, Turnbull has indicated his urban proposals for western Sydney will be filtered through something known as a City Deal.
The signing of a City Deal for western Sydney between the state and federal governments was announced in October. But the event was a farcical one: neither Turnbull nor Baird were able to talk about the contents of the deal they had just signed.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on a train in Sydney's west.](/web/20161222095822im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/7/a/l/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtfv4p.png/1482317465549.jpg)
The content of a recently signed Townsville City Deal, however, offers some hint about the sorts of items that may be included in a Sydney deal.
One element in the Townsville deal is federal support for a new stadium. Then there are initiatives that require private funds if they are to happen, such as a new convention centre, and a redeveloped waterfront. And there are commitments to establishing various agencies to help the economic development of the region: a Townsville Development Corporation, and a co-operative research centre for northern Queensland.
![Before catching a train to the city, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gets the thumbs up from a man at Central Station.](/web/20161222095822im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/v/8/4/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtfv4p.png/1482317465549.jpg)
The benefit of the document, it seems to me, is that it specifies various things that need to happen, and a timeframe in which they must happen. The Townsville City Deal runs for 15 years, and therefore provides a basis on which the community can judge its success.
So what could emerge as the big items in a western Sydney city deal?
One idea for which the state is keen to get Turnbull's support is an expansion of the proposed metro line between central Sydney and Parramatta. That line – to be built sometime in the next decade, Baird has announced – will include stops near Rozelle and Olympic Park and take pressure off the overcrowded Western Line.
But if the tunnels for the metro are dug wider, to allow for separate express tracks, there will be both be more stops and faster trains. Extra stops can be added (as well as extra housing) at places such as Leichhardt, Concord, Five Dock or Drummoyne, without slowing express trains between Parramatta and the CBD. The express line to Parramatta can, in time, be extended to western Sydney proper, and Badgerys Creek airport. That is one initiative Turnbull can help with.
Another rail initiative, and one perhaps Turnbull is more likely to help fund, is simply an extension of Sydney's existing South West Rail Link at Leppington to Badgerys Creek, possibly connecting to the coming Sydney Metro NorthWest project.
Around Badgerys Creek, there does appear to be significant planning underway. A commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission, Geoff Roberts, told a development breakfast last week his organisation was in talks with defence and aerospace companies about opening up in the vicinity of the airport site. It also seems likely that government support will be provided for a university campus in the region, probably to be focused on the aerospace and defence industries.
There is a lot Turnbull's government can do in western Sydney in 2017. And if it is short of ideas, it can do worse than act as an ATM for others.
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