Wonderful news

This is wonderful news:

In the first sign that the Rees Government is looking for immediate solutions to inner Sydney's congestion crisis, the Transport Minister, David Campbell, today will take a proposal to extend the light rail line to a key cabinet committee.

The low-cost proposal would extend the line from Lilyfield through Leichhardt, Haberfield and Summer Hill to Dulwich Hill railway station.

It would link the light rail to the inner-west and Bankstown lines, could be running within a year and cost less than $70 million.

They go on to say that the link to Summer Hill could be finished within months, also that the light rail will be integrated with the rest of the bus/train system (to the extent that there is integration of anything). Particularly if that means fee integration--I keep forgetting how much the light rail costs for a single ride, but it is in the neighborhood of $5--buses and trains, while expensive, cost much less.

And the loveliest thing of all is that a yoga school that I love is in Summer Hill. I can't figure a way to go there regularly now, since the transportation options are pretty crappy (late evening long waits for a bus on a particularly uninviting stretch of Paramatta Road), but if the light rail went where I can't easily walk but would like to go.... the possibilities are revolutionary.

Yay to the consumer utility increasing nature of public transportation. Now on to getting better pedestrian policies in place (a post for another day)!