With Parramatta’s light rail project set to kick off soon, Penrith on the verge of getting an Australian-first indoor snow resort, and Campbeltown set to welcome a huge water recreation centre, Sydney’s west is seeing an impressive amount of growth. But it’s not all rosy in the busy part of the city — traffic congestion in the west has been voted the worst in not just Sydney, but all of NSW. Western Sydney has also beaten the Sydney CBD, according to the NRMA — the first time it has done so in the survey which has been conducted annually for the last 16 years.
Traffic in Western Sydney ranked the worst in NSW
370 NRMA business members took part in the survey. 17 per cent of the participants voted for Western Sydney as the worst place to drive with 14 per cent voting for the CBD. 13 per cent named South-West Sydney as the worst with 12 per cent naming the Inner West as a nightmare to drive in. The survey further found that drivers were concerned about factors such as parking, time wastage, extra toll costs and fuel due to the traffic congestion with NRMA further calling it a “profit killer” for businesses.
“For the first time in the survey’s history, Western Sydney outranked the Sydney CBD as the worst area in Sydney for traffic congestion. This presents obvious challenges for the Government to ensure traffic in this critical region does not hold up businesses trying to deliver goods and services,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.
The news follows after the NRMA 2023 Rate Your Road survey dubbed four Western Sydney roads amongst the top 10 worst roads in NSW for traffic congestion, voted by over 29,000 motorists. Parramatta Rd at Auburn was unsurprisingly voted the worst.
The survey also concluded that traffic congestion had worsened due to the Rozelle Interchange according to 56 per cent of the motorists. Read the full report here.