Sydney Metro West Social Strategy

The Sydney Metro West project is a transformative infrastructure investment that promises to reshape the city’s future, dramatically increasing rail capacity and fostering new growth opportunities.

Connecting the Parramatta and Sydney central business districts, this once-in-a-century infrastructure investment will transform Sydney for generations to come; doubling rail capacity between these two areas, linking new communities to rail services and unlocking housing supply and employment growth between the two CBDs.

The Social Strategy team has been providing several services as part of the planning approvals process for Stage 2 of Sydney Metro West, including preparing a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and a comprehensive Community Infrastructure Needs Assessment (CINA) for each of the nine station precincts.

The team worked closely with Sydney Metro to deliver advice that capitalises on the unique opportunities the station precincts present to meet local and regional community needs for infrastructure and social benefit.

This project, through the iterative methodological process and refinement for each precinct, has consolidated our approach to assessing community infrastructure need. Refining the quantitative gaps in the context of qualitative information allowed the team to make nuanced, targeted recommendations that strategically responded to community needs while considering the political and stakeholder context and aspirations for each of the development sites.

We also supported the development the Community Benefit Plan, which is the guiding document that construction contractors will use to develop and deliver community benefit sharing activities as part of the construction period.