Eastern Economic Corridor is better connected and more competitive

Enhancing transport connectivity to and within the Eastern Economic Corridor and removing the barriers to investment and business in the strategic centres along the Corridor will strengthen Greater Sydney’s global competitiveness.

The Eastern Economic Corridor, from Macquarie Park to Sydney Airport, contains close to one-third of Greater Sydney’s jobs¹³.

In the North District, the Corridor includes North Sydney as part of the Harbour CBD and the strategic centres of Macquarie Park, Chatswood and St Leonards (see Planning Priorities N7 and N10). Macquarie Park and St Leonards are also important health and education precincts (see Planning Priority N9).

The major assets of the Eastern Economic Corridor that have significance for the North District include:

• Four of the top ten office precincts in Greater Sydney: Chatswood, St Leonards, Macquarie Park and North Sydney as part of the Harbour CBD (refer to Table 3)
• Macquarie University and the principal referral hospital of Royal North Shore Hospital
• Artarmon’s industrial areas, which provide for essential trades and services that support specialised economic activities.

Growing the economic activity of these major assets is discussed in more detail in the following Planning Priorities:

• N9 – Growing and investing in health and education precincts
• N10 – Growing investment, business opportunities and jobs in strategic centres

Table 3: Greater Sydney office precincts 2017

Source: Colliers International 2017, NSW Office Market Research Report 2017 (unpublished)
*Component of Harbour CBD

A number of committed and potential transport infrastructure projects will improve accessibility between the well-established economic agglomerations along and near the corridor and significantly increase the size of the labour market which can access the corridor by public transport, boosting productivity. These transport infrastructure projects include the following:

• The committed Sydney Metro Northwest and Sydney Metro City & Southwest will extend the reach and capacity of the existing rail network beyond Rouse Hill and significantly enhance the accessibility to, and between, approximately 1 million jobs which will exist between Rouse Hill and Sydney Airport by 2036.
• The committed NorthConnex will, among other wider benefits to Greater Sydney, improve accessibility to Hornsby and the Central Coast.
• The potential Northern Beaches to Chatswood bus improvements will better connect the major new Northern Beaches Hospital at Frenchs Forest and the Northern Beaches with the corridor. The roles of Frenchs Forest and Chatswood as interchange locations connecting parts of the Northern Beaches to other strategic centres will increase, and planning for improvement to the interchange facilities will need to be considered.
• A potential mass transit link from Parramatta to Epping would significantly improve the connection between Greater Sydney’s (and in fact Australia’s) two largest suburban centres of Macquarie Park and Greater Parramatta.

The NSW Government is also directly facilitating economic activity in the Eastern Economic Corridor through the work of the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, and UrbanGrowth NSW Development Corporation and Landcom in the following initiatives:

• Macquarie Park Urban Renewal Area, where the NSW Department of Planning and Environment will assess opportunities for new community facilities, vibrant spaces and homes close to transport links and jobs
• St Leonards and Crows Nest, where the NSW Department of Planning and Environment is working with Lane Cove, North Sydney and Willoughby City councils to undertake a strategic planning investigation of the St Leonards and Crows Nest Station Precinct.

The Greater Sydney Commission’s District Commissioner chairs both of these collaborative processes.