Insufficient public transport options between South and North Sydney are hampering access to white collar jobs, reveals a new study by Western Sydney University.
Sydney’s ‘latte line’, which represents an invisible divide along geographical lines in the city’s social and economic structure, has thrown up yet another inconvenient truth: Poor public transport from the south of Sydney to the north where most of the white collar jobs are concentrated, is getting in the way of professionals from the south and west who have to deal with long commutes to get to work.
White collar jobs are mostly concentrated in the north and east of Sydney, with 65 percent of the workers, defined as managers and professionals, belonging to this segment, according to 2016 Census data.
The research also showed that places such as North Sydney, Macquarie Park and Norwest Business Park were white collar job zones. Less than 10 percent are employed in the blue collar work segment.
West and south Sydney, on the other hand, have a massive blue collar slant with 60 percent working as labourers, machine operators and tradies, and just 17 percent in the white collar segment.
Lack of infrastructure and urban planning is being cited as a reason for the poor development of public transport connections from the south to the north of Sydney.
The Government plans to address this lacuna by creating three 30-minute cities, where residents can access jobs, education and recreation within half an hour. Transport will play an important role in achieving these objectives.
Sydney’s ‘latte line’ is not a localised phenomenon; similar patterns have been observed in cities across the world.
