The Member for Parramatta, Geoff Lee, is pushing for the state government to convert the Carlingford rail line to light rail, as part of a new connection between Parramatta and Epping and Macquarie Park.
Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian released four possible routes on Monday for a new light rail line to be built around Parramatta, with construction to start in the next term of Parliament.
Ms Berejiklian said the government would now analyse which route made most sense to be the first built, but said she wanted to eventually deliver a light rail "network" around Parramatta.
The four routes are Parramatta to Macquarie Park via Carlingford, which would take over the existing Carlingford rail line; Parramatta to Castle Hill via Old Northern Road; Parramatta to Bankstown; and Parramatta to Sydney Olympic Park and Strathfield/Burwood.
Ms Berejiklian would not nominate her preferred route, and would not set a date for choosing one.
"I'm hoping to do the work as quickly as we can," the minister said.
"The important thing is to be thorough. You can't get it wrong. You have to make sure you get the planning right."
But Dr Lee, the Liberal state MP, immediately nominated a link between Parramatta and Epping and Macquarie Park, along the Carlingford rail line and Carlingford Road, as his preferred option.
This option would mean that the Epping to Parramatta Rail Line – proposed by the former state Labor government in 1998, cancelled in 2003, and the subject of a funding offer from the federal Gillard government in 2010 – would be built instead as light rail.
"From Parramatta we join up the University of Western Sydney, we replace the Carlingford Line, and then we go right up to Epping or Macquarie Park," Dr Lee said.
"The wonderful thing about that option, the Carlingford Line we already own that track right up there," he said.
"So we have the existing corridor which we replace. And I think you'll find along Carlingford Road there's already a corridor along there."
But David Borger, the former state Labor MP for Granville and current Western Sydney director of the Sydney Business Chamber, backed a route from Westmead to Sydney Olympic Park via Camelia.
"I think all the routes are good routes, I just think western Sydney hasn't been able to capture a lot of knowledge jobs," Mr Borger said.
"There is a real opportunity here to connect Westmead, Parramatta and Sydney Olympic Park as one city."
But Mr Borger's suggested route would require an extension north-west from Parramatta to Westmead, which was not on the list released by Ms Berejiklian.
Ms Berejiklian said: "The key thing for us is obviously to see what is going to carry the most people and cover the most key institutions around Parramatta and Western Sydney. But also we need to consider as little disruption as possible to the community."
The minister said she "envisaged" construction would start in the next term of government.
Separately, Ms Berejiklian said last week the proposed $1.6 billion budget for a light rail line through central Sydney and to the eastern suburbs would increase.
She said the preferred bidder for the project – a consortium including Transdev Sydney, Alstom, Acciona Infrastructure and Capella Capital – would deliver 50 per cent more capacity than the 9000 passengers an hour previously stated.
On Monday, Ms Berejiklian said the extra capacity would come from longer vehicles and longer stops – not fewer seats.
"The way that we will achieve that increased capacity is because of longer and larger vehicles, of additional vehicles, and longer and larger platforms as well," she said.
The Carlingford Line is the least-used among Sydney's rail lines, carrying about 237,000 people last year. Most services on the line operate in a shuttle between Carlingford and Clyde.
The state opposition has separately promised $20 million into a feasibility for light rail around Parramatta.
