Greater community engagement achieved through rail project visualisation

Stage 2 of the Parramatta Light Rail project will connect Stage 1 and Parramatta’s Central Business District (CBD) to Sydney Olympic Park via Camellia, Rydalmere, Ermington, Melrose Park and Wentworth Point. It will connect the local communities in the Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula and bring the vision of a ‘30-minute city’ closer to reality. 

Stage 2 will have 14 stops over a 10-kilometre two-way track, with travel times of around 31 minutes from Camellia to the Carter Street Precinct via Sydney Olympic Park, and a further 7 minutes to the Parramatta Central Business District (CBD).  It will also connect to the future Sydney Metro West and heavy rail in Parramatta and Sydney Olympic Park, and ferry services at Rydalmere and Sydney Olympic Park.

Transport for NSW wanted to communicate the details of the project and its possible impacts via its online engagement channel, which would be more effective than a traditional PDF report. 

Transport for NSW needed to communicate details of the Parramatta Light Rail project and possible impacts to the public, which traditionally would be done using a PDF report. This required an online engagement channel be created to better serve the community throughout the duration of the project.

The Parramatta Light Rail project had two stages. Stage one connected the local communities in the Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula to bring the vision of a ‘30-minute city’ closer to reality.  Stage two aimed to better connect and reduce travel times from Camellia to the Carter Street Precinct via Sydney Olympic Park and Parramatta CBD. 

A crucial stage of delivering a major infrastructure project is to progress through the NSW Government’s planning approval process, which requires the preparations of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS describes the project’s potential impacts to the environment and community and provides potential mitigation measures to minimise those impacts.

As a result, a public exhibition period is required to provide the community and all stakeholders with an opportunity to view the EIS document and share any comments or concerns. Typically, information of this kind is highly technical and often hard for the public to access. The visual portal makes public to access easier and provides better understanding of project information to submit more informed submissions.

Visual representations of information about construction zones, changes to local amenities, proposed design elements and overall community impacts, makes it easier for the public and non-technical stakeholders to understand. 

As the project took place during the pandemic when face to face engagement was not possible or limited, it was essential we used a virtual solution to support community engagement. Our GHD Digital Experience team worked with Transport for NSW to create its first EIS portal with a Virtual Engagement Room (VER). The portal provided an engaging and accessible executive summary of the complex project information like reports, plans, EIS documentation, project maps, design visualisations and construction information to more than 18,000 users.

This visual portal was instrumental in introducing the second stage of the project while building on the earlier community engagement from stage one. We extended the benefits of the existing VER to create another EIS portal that would support their six-week public exhibition period.

Using GHD Engage and Esri’s GIS mapping software, we built a central gateway to help users find key information contained within the EIS surrounding community benefits, impacts to their surroundings and biodiversity, key urban design plans and projected noise and vibration levels.

As a first of its kind for GHD, this project paves the way for future EIS portals, highlighting the importance of creating community-friendly tools to help explain highly technical information.

With the use of the EIS portal and VER, traditional barriers, such as language, disability or availability to attend community face to face sessions are reduced. These tools also provide a long-term, single source of truth for Transport for NSW and its project team.

Virtual engagement tools offer a range of benefits that can enhance accessibility, increase engagement, and provide cost savings, whilst providing greater flexibility and enhanced data analytics compared to traditional in-person meetings.

“The team understood and responded to what we needed and worked closely with us throughout the development and delivery of the digital channel,” said Sarah Shaw, Manager Communication and Stakeholder Engagement, Transport for NSW. “They were receptive to our rapidly changing requirements and deadlines, and the result was an innovative and community-friendly tool to support the EIS exhibition, now and for the future."