Parramatta Light Rail – Stage 1

Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 responds to the challenge of delivering vital transport infrastructure while transforming the public realm in a rapidly growing, diverse region. The brief demanded integrated design outcomes across seven precincts—each with unique character, constraints, and stakeholder needs. Key challenges included preserving cultural heritage, improving pedestrian amenity, embedding green infrastructure, and coordinating with multiple agencies. Design solutions overcame complex site conditions, staging, and regulatory requirements to deliver vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable streetscapes. The project reimagines infrastructure as a catalyst for city-making, balancing technical, social, and environmental performance in the geographic heart of Sydney.

The design solution for Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 embedded urban design, landscape, and architecture from inception to delivery, ensuring transport infrastructure delivered broader urban, social, and environmental outcomes. Early collaboration with stakeholders established a shared vision, captured in the PLR Urban Design Requirements (“The Blue Book”), which guided design through procurement and construction. Key milestones included the feasibility and implementation of Australia’s longest green track, a 5.7km walking and cycling path, and a citywide tree strategy. Innovative responses to heritage sensitivities, urban heat, and complex interfaces were achieved through integrated design, clear communication, and commitment to place-based, people-first outcomes.

Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 has delivered lasting impact at every scale—revitalising Western Sydney’s public domain, boosting local economies, and improving quality of life. It enhances transport choice and accessibility while creating greener, cooler, more walkable precincts. The project supports commercial growth through thriving pedestrianised dining areas and improved connections to jobs, education, health and recreation. Environmentally, it delivers 1,975 new street trees, 1.3km of green track, and water-sensitive urban design. Socially, it prioritises public space, Indigenous heritage and inclusive access, setting a new benchmark for infrastructure-led urban renewal, placing people, culture and sustainability at the heart of city-making.

Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 features Australia’s longest stretch of green track—1.3 kilometres of grass-covered line that reimagines transport infrastructure as living landscape. This innovation replaces 81% of standard concrete track with vegetated systems, enhancing urban heat mitigation, noise absorption, and visual softening of hard infrastructure. The green track helps cool and green the city spine, with a turf species carefully selected for its resilience and climate suitability. The project also delivers a 5.7km active transport link, fully accessible stops, and 1,975 new trees, guided by a collaborative tree strategy. The urban design’s “Blue Book” ensured consistent quality across seven precincts, from heritage landscapes to the pedestrianised Eat Street dining precinct. Designing with Country: Themes of waterways, sightlines, and ancestral trees are integrated into the design, celebrating local Aboriginal heritage. Key features include an Aboriginal garden at Cumberland Hospital and the Bidgee Bidgee Bridge, named in honour of a local Elder. Two light rail stops—Ngara (‘listen, hear, think’) and Yallamundi (‘storytelling’)—honour First Nations heritage. An Indigenous planting palette reinforces Dharug Country’s character, and fig trees impacted by the corridor were ceremonially released and propagated for future planting. This integration supports cultural connections and sustainability.