Dharug People
New South Wales
Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 is reshaping movement and public life across Sydney’s Central River City.Â
Designed by COX Architecture with CONTEXT Landscape Architecture and delivered for Transport for NSW, the 12-kilometre, 16-stop line links Westmead to Carlingford via Parramatta CBD, uniting health, education and cultural precincts with a cohesive civic identity.
Curvilinear, prefabricated stop canopies establish a distinctive visual language inspired by the ParramattaÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ River, balancing beauty with precision in lighting, stormwater management and wayfinding.Â
A planted green track – the first of its kind in NSW – reduces urban heat, improves stormwater performance and softens infrastructure within the public realm.Â
Parramatta Light Rail provides a new civic spine for a growing city, embedding public, environmental and cultural value at every stage of its design and delivery.Â
The Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design
Parramatta Light Rail demonstrates how thoughtful urban infrastructure can positively influence the future form of a city, enhancing how people move, gather and experience a place.
Parramatta continues its renewal as metropolitan Sydney’s geographic and economic centre, undergoing a profound reshaping of its urban fabric. Parramatta Light Rail responds to this by connecting communities, unlocking precincts and enabling a cohesive, more sustainable and integrated future for the city and its citizens.
Spanning 12 kilometres from Westmead to Carlingford, and traversing the Parramatta CBD, the character of the 16 new stops plays a meaningful role in contributing to Western Sydney’s emerging civic identity.
The Light Rail alignment serves major destinations including the Westmead Health Precinct, Cumberland Hospital, North Parramatta, Riverside Theatres, the Parramatta CBD, Rosehill Gardens, Western Sydney University, Rydalmere, Telopea and Camellia.
Already more than 130,000 people live within walking distance of a stop, a number anticipated to increase as the project catalyses ongoing consolidation and renewal.
The project features NSW’s first planted light rail corridor – Green Track – serving to cool the city, improve biodiversity and stormwater quality outcomes. The corridor provides continuous shade and generous shared paths, which in turn contribute to climate adaptation while also enriching the public domain.
Parramatta Light Rail redefines the relationship between infrastructure and place by recognising contextual cues, anticipating the future, and by bringing employment, services and amenity closer to where people live.
The Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design
Parramatta Light Rail demonstrates how thoughtful urban infrastructure can positively influence the future form of a city, enhancing how people move, gather and experience a place.
Parramatta continues its renewal as metropolitan Sydney’s geographic and economic centre, undergoing a profound reshaping of its urban fabric. Parramatta Light Rail responds to this by connecting communities, unlocking precincts and enabling a cohesive, more sustainable and integrated future for the city and its citizens.
Spanning 12 kilometres from Westmead to Carlingford, and traversing the Parramatta CBD, the character of the 16 new stops plays a meaningful role in contributing to Western Sydney’s emerging civic identity.
The Light Rail alignment serves major destinations including the Westmead Health Precinct, Cumberland Hospital, North Parramatta, Riverside Theatres, the Parramatta CBD, Rosehill Gardens, Western Sydney University, Rydalmere, Telopea and Camellia.
Already more than 130,000 people live within walking distance of a stop, a number anticipated to increase as the project catalyses ongoing consolidation and renewal.
The project features NSW’s first planted light rail corridor – Green Track – serving to cool the city, improve biodiversity and stormwater quality outcomes. The corridor provides continuous shade and generous shared paths, which in turn contribute to climate adaptation while also enriching the public domain.
Parramatta Light Rail redefines the relationship between infrastructure and place by recognising contextual cues, anticipating the future, and by bringing employment, services and amenity closer to where people live.
The design of PLR Stage 1 has balanced the need for a safe, convenient and accessible transport service with the integration of other transport modes (including active transport), green place-making, heritage and urban environment considerations.
It’s helping to meet the needs of this Parramatta as Sydney’s second CBD growing region—connecting people and places and transforming the way people move around by enhancing mobility and accessibility for residents, workers, and visitors.
PLR Stage 1 is not just about delivering a transport service; through its design, it is delivering future–resilient, inclusive, connected, and vibrant places.
Ian Connolly, Project Director/Urban Designer
David Holm, Project Director/Architect
Satvir Man, Project Architect
Kate Macdonald, Project Architect
Nazmul Khan, Designer
Matthew Bolton, Project Architect
William Hamilton, Designer
Ameila Cooper, Designer
Nick Lucchese, Graduate of Architecture
Yvonne Tong, Graphic Designer
CPB Contractors (Parramatta Connnect), Infrastructure
Downer (Parramatta Connnect), Infrastructure
COX Architecture, Urban Designer
CONTEXT, Landscape Architecture
WSP, Engineer
Aurecon, Engineer
Transdev (Great River City Light Rail), Supply, Operate, Maintain Contractors
CAF Rail Australia, Supply, Operate, Maintain Contractors
Laing O’Rourke, Landscape Architecture