Strategic cycleway corridors for Greater Sydney

It’s estimated that over 1.5 billion trips a year are made on foot or by bike in NSW. The popularity of walking and bike riding has significantly increased in recent years, supported by the NSW Government’s growing investment in new and improved infrastructure. This includes investing in active transport for everyone, whether children riding to school, parents pushing prams, or people with disabilities moving about their communities freely.

Transport’s Active Transport Strategy, which was released in December 2022, provides a plan to guide investment and priority actions for active transport across NSW, drawing upon the Future Transport Strategy and its vision for walking, bike riding and personal mobility. The Strategy’s vision is to double the number of walking and bike riding trips over 20 years across NSW. To deliver this outcome, one of the five key focus areas of the Strategy is to deliver a connected and continuous cycling network.

The ambition is to provide more than 1,000km of new cycleways with a priority move to deliver more than 100km of new strategic cycleways by 2028.

The NSW Government is planning the provision of a safe and connected cycleway network across Greater Sydney to enable more people to safely ride their bike as part of everyday travel. The Strategic Cycleway Corridors Program provides the foundation for establishing safe and convenient cycleways that better connect centres, precincts and places, while supporting council’s local bike networks. Networks have been identified for the Eastern Harbour City, Central River City, and Western Parkland City in Greater Sydney, with programs to follow for the cities of Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle, Central Coast and Illawarra-Shoalhaven. The Eastern Harbour City network was released in April 2022.

Over 85 cycleway corridors have been identified across Greater Sydney, extending more than 850 kms that will connect key centres and major points of interest. Almost 60 of these corridors, amounting to over 600km, are located in Central River City and Western Parkland City. Exact routes and alignments will be investigated and will be subject to detailed design and collaboration with councils, other stakeholders and the community. 

The strategic cycleway corridors have been developed to provide a highly connected network that supports future uptake of walking and cycling within key centres across Greater Sydney. The corridors have been developed with consideration of current and future growth within key centres, major projects and land use changes, priorities of local councils and bike user groups along with their alignment to strategic plans and strategies. 

The corridors will be progressively rolled out in shorter sections to increasingly expand the connected network.  

Transport for NSW has identified five immediate opportunities for investigation to fill shorter gaps in the network for various corridors within the Western Parkland City and Central River City, as well as those announced previously for Eastern Harbour City. 

Five connections within each of the strategic networks for the Eastern Harbour City, Central River City and Western Parkland City are seen as immediate opportunities to progress as they will fill important gaps and missing links in the network. 

Progressing these connections will help fast-track the forming of the connected network and enable more people to ride safely for everyday trips. The five immediate opportunities for the Eastern Harbour City that were previously identified are as follows: 

• Alexandra Canal connection 
• North Sydney connections 
• Newtown and Green Square connection 
• Lilyfield connection 
• St Leonards and Artarmon connection 

The immediate opportunities for both Western Parkland City and Central River City are detailed below: 
 
Western Parkland City 

• Penrith and Kingswood connection   
• Kingswood and St Marys connection 
• Liverpool and Moorebank connection 
• Liverpool and Casula connection 
• Campbelltown and Macarthur connection 

Central River City 

• Macquarie Park connections 
• Bankstown and Campsie connection 
• Parramatta and Westmead connection 
• Blacktown CBD connections 
• Wentworth Point and Sydney Olympic Park connection 

This program will progressively expand to include other short-term opportunities, for which Transport for NSW will provide further updates in due course. 
 

These connections fill important gaps and missing links in the existing cycling network in busy and growing centres. Progressing these connections will help fast-track the forming of our connected network and enable more people to ride safely for everyday trips. 

Transport for NSW is currently working to progress the top 5 immediate opportunities for the Eastern Harbour City and the broader implementation framework.  

• Alexandra Canal connection – Transport for NSW is commencing planning and design work for this opportunity, which was announced in December 2022.
• North Sydney connections – Transport for NSW is currently investigating opportunities through major projects in the area as well as undertaking planning work to ensure connections to the Sydney Harbour Bridge are improved.
• Newtown and Green Square connection – Transport for NSW is undertaking planning and design for the Wilson Street (West) cycleway as well as reviewing potential improvements along the corridor between Newtown and Green Square.
• Lilyfield connection – Transport for NSW is currently investigating options for the design of this connection and will work collaboratively with Inner West Council. We are also reviewing further opportunities given current investment in this area.
• St Leonards and Artarmon connection – Transport for NSW is currently investigating options to fund the design and subsequent delivery of this connection and will work collaboratively with Willoughby Council. 

Transport for NSW is currently developing implementation plans to allow a staged roll out of the shorter sections that connect up existing infrastructure, including identifying funding programs to ensure their delivery.  In line with the priority move within the recently released Active Transport Strategy, Transport for NSW will work with local councils and other agencies to deliver over 100km of strategic cycleway corridors that contribute towards a connected cycleway network by 2028. This will include the delivery of corridors across Western Sydney. There are also a number of proposed connections which are already either in construction or design development in Eastern Harbour City such as the Alexandra Canal link that was announced in December 2022. 

Our ambition is to deliver more than 1,000km of new cycleways and supporting infrastructure to increase the number of trips made by bike. This will help meet our vision of doubling the number of walking and cycling trips. Transport will also continue to support, fund and work with councils to deliver and expand local bike networks under the Get NSW Active program. Project-specific updates, including community consultation, will be regularly provided when funding for these projects is announced.   

As work progresses with refining routes within the corridors, a clearer cost estimation will be established, noting that funding for missing links may be addressed through different programs and opportunities rather than simply through this program. For example, Transport for NSW’s Providing for Walking and Cycling in Transport Projects policy requires that every project funded by Transport for NSW must include provision for walking and cycling within the core scope of the project. 

Transport for NSW will pursue and secure funding agreements to help progress the design and subsequent construction of the strategic network while local networks will largely be funded through the Get NSW Active program. Where strategic and local connections overlap, these may be funded through Get NSW Active. 

The program will apply the design guidance from Transport for NSW’s Cycleway Design Toolbox as the cycleways are developed. This may involve upgrades to existing cycleways to better align with this guidance. The design of cycleways will be informed by the local setting and will involve consultation with relevant stakeholders along each corridor to make streets safer for all users.  

The provision of cycling infrastructure will also assist pedestrians by separating bike riding and walking in locations with competing demands, providing safer facilities for all types of active transport users. Furthermore, the recently released Active Transport Strategy has a priority move to trial 15-minute neighbourhoods by enabling safe walking connections in local areas as well as around centres. 

Green space and waterways play an important role for outdoor recreation and connectivity across Greater Sydney and NSW. It is recognised that these areas provide a high level of amenity for users which may be beneficial for new or improved cycleways. Detailed route planning for the strategic cycleway corridors may result in routes being located along or within these areas following design work and consultation. 

The primary focus of the strategic cycleway network is to provide safe cycleways that better connect key centres, precincts, places, and major points of interest. We are currently at the corridor planning and review stage, with planning of route alignments along those corridors to follow. The investigation and selection of corridors may result in routes being located along or between existing cycleways, which is an important part of the local context. 

Any requirements for land acquisition or the removal of car parking will be determined once potential route alignments have been identified and investigated with the aim of minimising such requirements through extensive stakeholder consultation. Where appropriate, such as along State Roads, Transport for NSW’s Road User Space Allocation Policy and Procedure will be applied to minimise any adverse impact of infrastructure delivery. 

Bike riding, along with walking, is the most sustainable mode of transport. It contributes to great places, cleaner local environments, healthier lifestyles, and also provides economic benefits. 

Transport for NSW will work with local councils and other partners to progressively fund, design and implement the strategic cycleway corridors network.  

Transport for NSW has been working in partnership with councils, bike user groups including Bicycle NSW, Bike North, Bike South West, CAM West, Liverpool Bicycle User Group, Ride Blue Mountains, St George Bicycle User Group, Western Sydney Cycling Network, and other relevant authorities including the Western Parkland City Authority and Sydney Olympic Park Authority across several rounds of engagement to inform the development of the latest program updates and overview for Western Parkland City and Central River City. Community engagement is an important part of the future development of the corridors.  

Transport for NSW will continue to work with councils to deliver and expand local bike networks through planning guidance and funding support through the Get NSW Active program. This local network planning framework complements the strategic corridors. 

Transport for NSW will ensure First Nations people are involved in the development of routes, that culturally significant sites are protected, and that cultural knowledge is valued, respected and enhanced as part of the future development of the strategic cycleway corridors. 

The program is initially focused on Greater Sydney but will expand over time to the other metropolitan cities across NSW.  

Strategic cycleway corridors have previously been identified and announced for the Eastern Harbour City. Other corridors within the strategic network will be identified and developed as the program progressively expands for the cities of Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle, Central Coast and Illawarra-Shoalhaven.

Regional NSW is also a focus for the NSW Government. Transport for NSW is investing in cycleways and connected networks via the Get NSW Active program. We are also working with other agencies to enable rail trail opportunities. 

For many parts of the strategic cycleway corridors, route investigations will need to be undertaken before specific alignments are developed. In some cases however, there may be some overlap between the corridors and the Sydney to Parramatta Foreshore route.