Eastwood History

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tonyp
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Eastwood History

Post by tonyp »

Swift wrote: One ever so slight problem. Epping Road is just as bad before Wicks Road.
North Ryde has fallen victim to saturated development without commensurate upgrades to road infrastructure. The Epping Road flyover was built in 1978 FFS. It was constructed in anticipation of the County Road joining up from Eastwood and which remains in hibernation to this day when it should have been completed decades ago.
We STILL rely on Balaclava Rd as the main link from Eastwood. Then we have that goat track (New) Delhi Rd!
I'd rather the goat track days thanks!
HHBC - mo 378 Reo Syd Wood.JPG
Transtopic
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by Transtopic »

Swift wrote:One ever so slight problem. Epping Road is just as bad before Wicks Road.
North Ryde has fallen victim to saturated development without commensurate upgrades to road infrastructure. The Epping Road flyover was built in 1978 FFS. It was constructed in anticipation of the County Road joining up from Eastwood and which remains in hibernation to this day when it should have been completed decades ago.
We STILL rely on Balaclava Rd as the main link from Eastwood. Then we have that goat track (New) Delhi Rd!
The Eastwood County Road reservation, which was gazetted as a strategic road link in 1951, is one of the most forgotten major road links in Sydney. It would divert a lot of traffic away from the congested Herring and Balaclava Road intersections on Epping Road as well as providing a more direct upgraded road link between Macquarie Park and Parramatta and Bankstown via Eastwood, linking up with Kissing Point and Silverwater Roads respectively.

It was designed as a 6 lane carriageway with a wide centre median allowing for separate right turn bays. The widened rail overpass at Eastwood was also constructed as part of the project. It would take a lot of pressure off the current routes via Top Ryde and Epping, being midway between them. During the last community consultation process on the project in the 1990's, State Transit had indicated that they would be amenable to using it for an express bus service between Chatswood and Parramatta. The project was put on the backburner during the construction of the M2 extension, but it's still needed now more than ever.

However, its future construction could be in jeopardy as the latest Metropolitan Planning Strategy has proposed that the reservation be converted to a Green Grid between Eastwood and Macquarie Park. Whether this means that the road reservation will be abandoned completely or that it will be a shared corridor hasn't been spelt out. It would be short sighted if it is intended to be the former. Otherwise, why bother reserving corridors for future transport links if they can be so easily overturned at the whim of the government of the day?

The shutdown of the ECRL and the replacement Station Link service has only heightened the awareness of the inadequacy of the current road infrastructure around Macquarie Park, particularly in connecting it with the Northern and Western regions, which has always been there in spite of the existing and dare I say it future rail links. The most neglected links are with Chatswood and Parramatta via Eastwood.

I'm glad you brought up the Delhi Road goat track, which includes Millwood Ave and Fullers Road. This is another road link which has been sadly neglected and has been a major contributor to the current congestion with the Station Link service. There was previously a proposal to widen Delhi Road to 6 lanes, with a new high level bridge across the Lane Cove River in the National Park. A road reservation, since abandoned, continued through the Blue Gum Forest to the intersection of Boundary Street and the Pacific Hwy at Roseville, bypassing Chatswood, but still allowing access via both the Pacific Hwy and Archer Street either side of the rail corridor.

The NIMBYs got their way, but locals and those transiting through the area are now paying the price with severe traffic congestion through Chatswood in peak hours. The resumption of rail services after completion of the metro conversion isn't alone going to significantly reduce traffic congestion until the road network servicing Macquarie Park is upgraded.
Transtopic
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by Transtopic »

tonyp wrote:
Swift wrote: One ever so slight problem. Epping Road is just as bad before Wicks Road.
North Ryde has fallen victim to saturated development without commensurate upgrades to road infrastructure. The Epping Road flyover was built in 1978 FFS. It was constructed in anticipation of the County Road joining up from Eastwood and which remains in hibernation to this day when it should have been completed decades ago.
We STILL rely on Balaclava Rd as the main link from Eastwood. Then we have that goat track (New) Delhi Rd!
I'd rather the goat track days thanks!
HHBC - mo 378 Reo Syd Wood.JPG
I used to catch the 85 to Eastwood. The bus looks familiar.
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Swift
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by Swift »

Transtopic wrote:
Tonyp wrote: I'd rather the goat track days thanks!
HHBC - mo 378 Reo Syd Wood.JPG
I used to catch the 85 to Eastwood. The bus looks familiar.
I'm old enough to remember using the 85 from Ethel St, Eastwood to Mac Centre in the 80s before the wholesale changes to North & Western Bus Lines routes in 1991.
From my recollections, it went up Balaclava Rd, left into Agincourt Rd, Yangalla St, Vimiera Rd to Waterloo Rd, right into Culloden Rd which must have been the roughest most pockmarked sealed road I ever encountered in my life. Their various Leyland buses must have went through many a set of shocks, plying that route over the years! It was like that throughout my memories on the 85. The buses would bounce around and rattle over that stretch to the point I was relieved when it reached civilisation again on Epping Rd!
Some would divert to the end of Busaco Rd before commencing along Culloden, left Epping Rd, then through the university and to Macquarie Centre with a view of Deanes Clipper Tours Alma Rd depot from the flyover on Herring Rd.
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by Transtopic »

Swift wrote:I'm old enough to remember using the 85 from Ethel St, Eastwood to Mac Centre in the 80s before the wholesale changes to North & Western Bus Lines routes in 1991.
From my recollections, it went up Balaclava Rd, left into Agincourt Rd, Yangalla St, Vimiera Rd to Waterloo Rd, right into Culloden Rd which must have been the roughest most pockmarked sealed road I ever encountered in my life. Their various Leyland buses must have went through many a set of shocks, plying that route over the years! It was like that throughout my memories on the 85. The buses would bounce around and rattle over that stretch to the point I was relieved when it reached civilisation again on Epping Rd!
Some would divert to the end of Busaco Rd before commencing along Culloden, left Epping Rd, then through the university and to Macquarie Centre with a view of Deanes Clipper Tours Alma Rd depot from the flyover on Herring Rd.
I realise I'm digressing from the topic, but my recollections go back even further, to the late 1940's early 1950's. I lived in North Rd which was then a dirt road as were many of the roads in the area, which was mostly market gardens, orchards and dairies. To the best of my recollection, Balaclava Rd was a sealed 2 lane bitumen road and Epping Rd was a 2 lane concrete road, both with dirt shoulders.

The route 85 which I recall didn't run to Marsfield (Macquarie Park) as that was serviced by a different route from Eastwood along Balaclava Rd, but I can't remember the route number. Route 85 ran from Railway Pde, opposite Ethel St, along May St turning left into Blaxland Rd, turning right into Lansdowne St, then right into Gordon St, left into Welby St, right into Pickford Ave, left into Lovell Rd continuing through to the current Midway shops, then turning left into North Rd and continuing to Five Ways at the Balaclava Rd intersection where it terminated. It could have diverted from North Rd via Threlfall St, Culgoa Ave/Abuklea Rd and Longview St before returning back to North Rd, but I never travelled on that section much. The route obviously must have changed in later years.
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by Swift »

Those were different days to mine. They would have been under Hunters Hill Bus Co. My 85 days were with North & Western Bus Lines, though I rode their CC Bedford autos still in the scheme well into the 80s and saw plenty plying the streets in the maroon scheme. The last one I glimpsed were three ex Adelaide Worldmasters parked back first toward Victoria Rd at the Monash Rd facility in 1993.
The 85 must have undergone a major change in time for the inauguration of Macquarie Centre. Who would have expected it to remain an enduring icon so long?
I don't think it will ever be as great as it was in the 1980s.
It had such a glamorous atmosphere and was a groundbreaking scale which us now just average by today's shopping mall standards.
Does anyone know where the 85 continued to after Macquarie Centre?

**Admin are going to have kittens over this**
Might be time to clean this up with a breakaway thread if this line continues.
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kypros1992
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by kypros1992 »

Swift wrote: Time to scale back bus services to 1982 levels.
North and Western Map anyone? (1981) https://imgur.com/EXBGzIP
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by Swift »

^ in some ways that was more comprehensive, locally. They now have an obsession with linking faraway places with Macquarie Park, resulting in a glut of bus services it can't handle. Thanks btw, that brought back memories of how it was. I hate how Eastwood has changed so much.
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neilrex
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by neilrex »

I'd like to have a direct bus straight along Metroad 3 from St Ives, to at least as far as Rhodes, without any deviations.
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by Richard290 »

neilrex wrote:I'd like to have a direct bus straight along Metroad 3 from St Ives, to at least as far as Rhodes, without any deviations.
It’s now A3 since the alphanumeric rollout in 2013.


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Ray
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by Ray »

Route 85 (or my particular incarnation of it) went on to AWA North Ryde.
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OKO
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Re: Station Link Observations

Post by OKO »

Transtopic wrote:
Swift wrote:I'

The route 85 which I recall didn't run to Marsfield (Macquarie Park) as that was serviced by a different route from Eastwood along Balaclava Rd, but I can't remember the route number. Route 85 ran from Railway Pde, opposite Ethel St, along May St turning left into Blaxland Rd, turning right into Lansdowne St, then right into Gordon St, left into Welby St, right into Pickford Ave, left into Lovell Rd continuing through to the current Midway shops, then turning left into North Rd and continuing to Five Ways at the Balaclava Rd intersection where it terminated. It could have diverted from North Rd via Threlfall St, Culgoa Ave/Abuklea Rd and Longview St before returning back to North Rd, but I never travelled on that section much. The route obviously must have changed in later years.
If I recollect correctly, route 228 used to follow most of that between Ryde and Eastwood.
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by Rclasstramcar »

tonyp wrote:
Swift wrote: One ever so slight problem. Epping Road is just as bad before Wicks Road.
North Ryde has fallen victim to saturated development without commensurate upgrades to road infrastructure. The Epping Road flyover was built in 1978 FFS. It was constructed in anticipation of the County Road joining up from Eastwood and which remains in hibernation to this day when it should have been completed decades ago.
We STILL rely on Balaclava Rd as the main link from Eastwood. Then we have that goat track (New) Delhi Rd!
I'd rather the goat track days thanks!
HHBC - mo 378 Reo Syd Wood.JPG
Hi folks,
Does anyone know where this photo was taken and who took it?

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GM
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by GM »

Len Manny took a number of photos of HHBC?
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by Rclasstramcar »

What does HHBC mean please, GM?

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LB608
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by LB608 »

Hunters Hill Bus Company
tonyp
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Re: Eastwood History

Post by tonyp »

I'd say there's a good chance it is a Leon Manny photo and I have a niggling feeling in my mind that's Clarrie Paull in the photo, but this is stretching my memory a long way back.
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