Illawarra-Shoalhaven residents may see faster connections to Sydney and the Hunter under a new plan to tie Sydney together with surrounding cities into one global city region.
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The first steps towards tying together the megalopolis happened on Thursday, March 31, when the Greater Sydney Commission transformed into the Greater Cities Commission.
The Commission, which had been driving the planning for the three-city vision for Sydney, will now develop a plan for a six-city region, including Sydney's three cities: the Illawarra-Shoalhaven, the Central Coast and the Hunter and greater Newcastle.
According to Senior Professor Pascal Perez, director of the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong, this change could accelerate fast rail connections between Wollongong and Sydney and South West Sydney.
"Business Illawarra and the SMART Infrastructure facility have been arguing for the which has always been considered by the state government as a project for the distant future," he said.
"As long as the Great Sydney Commission was dealing with the three Sydney cities this discussion could not go much further, but now that we're discussing six cities, then all of a sudden infrastructure investments such as SWIRL make sense."
Chief commissioner Geoff Roberts said that the change would mean more people working within 30 minutes of where they live, more affordable housing and equitable access to education and training.
"We are well and truly in the era of the global city region - in bringing six cities together, we are putting our communities at the heart of a globally facing region," he said.
"The move will deliver economic and lifestyle benefits to millions of people, supporting growth with fit-for-life infrastructure and allowing more people to enjoy our enviable waterways and natural environment."
The concept of bringing together the region into one mega city has been around since a 2018 report from the Committee for Sydney dubbed the region the "Sandstone Mega Region".
The concept draws on the idea of multi-centric mega regions, such as Randstad in the Netherlands - combining Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht - or the Pearl River Delta, which draws together Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
What distinguishes these mega-regions from megacities, such as London or Tokyo, is that each of the cities are distinct and complement each other, rather than a central core with surrounding satellite cities.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the city's strengths in areas such as logistics and industrial facilities at Port Kembla, renewable energy projects on the horizon and the city's university and TAFE will distinguish it from other cities in the Sandstone Mega-Region.
At an event to promote Wollongong as a place to invest to businesses in Sydney on Wednesday, March 30, Cr Bradbery said not only was the new office space making Wollongong attractive to businesses based in Sydney, but that the city had an opportunity to showcase itself to the globe in the UCI Road World Championships.
"Wollongong will be showcased to the world," he said. "They'll see a unique location, with a unique work life balance and what we can put before the world is the fact that we've got all these wonderful opportunities, everything from education through to local employment."
To make the vision of an interconnected city-region a reality, investment in the region's infrastructure will be needed, said Professor Perez.
"It was easier for the government to think about faster trains for Newcastle than for Wollongong. In the context of six cities now we can really put on the table the fact that this SWIRL corridor is not just a vital link to Western Sydney for many people living and working in the region but also probably the only way to link faster trains for the region."
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