Sutherland To Cronulla Active Transport Link

The Sutherland to Cronulla Active Transport Link (SCATL) has been the subject of community advocacy for over 20 years. SCATL is conceived as a shared user path located within, or very close to, the rail tracks to create a direct, off-road regional ‘spine’ route that avoids steep gradients and links key centres. Delivery of SCATL was a NSW Government election pledge in 2019.

The current proposals are very different from the SCATL promised to the community. Transport for NSW is progressing Stage 2 on streets outside the rail corridor, and propose a narrow shared path along the traffic sewer of Kingsway. The current ‘preferred alignment’ risks creating infrastructure that is dangerous and falls well short of Transport for NSW policy standards.

Bicycle NSW is very concerned that optimal routes continue to be overlooked. Our advocacy has ramped up. A 2022 issues paper highlights how the reasons provided by Transport for NSW to abandon the rail corridor SCATL are not valid for long sections of the corridor. The western section of the SCATL Stage 2 has gone back to the drawing board and will now consider the use of the rail corridor for some sections.  If concerns around access, ownership and safety can be resolved along certain stretches of the corridor, lessons learned can be rolled out for more sections, including the Stage 3 project towards Cronulla.