I'm no expert but I suspect just one clue to the problem might be the tell-tale phrase ``State Government''.

(Or is ``State Government'' and ``stuff up'' a tautology?)

When I was doing research for our 130th birthday feature, I couldn't help noticing a front-page article in our paper in the 1950s, highlighting the important role the Campbelltown-Camden train line would play once this area began to explode in suburb growth.

And so it would have.

Blind Freddy could have seen it but not the Labor state government, which ripped up that light-rail system in 1963.

I recently stayed in Melbourne with my family for a whole week. We used their excellent tram system to get around the city. It was easy, efficient and the longest wait we had was 10 minutes.

Sydney is a road-rage fuelled pig's breakfast in comparison.

I see that Premier Keneally has told her people to study the new independent inquiry and is considering a return to light rail not that we'll see it out here in Campbelltown.

The problem is, fixing Sydney's roads and rail is only one part of the problem.

Two years ago, I asked Greg Percival our great elder statesman and former mayor what he reckoned the most pressing planning issue was today. He took no time to respond: ``Transport.''

``Even if the M5 is doubled into four lanes tomorrow, in five years that will only be barely enough,'' he said.

The real question that should be asked is, why are a million or more people trying to fight their way into the city, and then back out again, each day?

Greg said the only solution was to take commuter traffic out of the Sydney gridlock by relocating government departments and major corporate headquarters out to outlying centres such as Campbelltown, where the workers actually live.

``In today's world you don't need to be located in George Street, Sydney. You could run any major bank of department from Ayers Rock,'' Greg said.

Words worth thinking about but we won't hold our breath.

jmcgill@fairfaxme dia .com.au