A public transport connection between John Hunter Hospital and the University of Newcastle, a widening of Minmi Road and a Newcastle Interchange ferry terminal are on Newcastle council's wishlist for a state government transport plan.
Councillors agreed to make a submission to the government's Hunter Regional Transport Plan 2041 after a notice of motion from the city's Labor councillors.
The list of desired projects also included an extension of the Newcastle Light Rail, delivery of the Lower Hunter Freight Corridor, diversification of the Port of Newcastle through a container terminal and second entry to Summerhill Waste Recycling Facility from Link Road.
The motion also called on council to consider a strategic case for a future rail system servicing Wallsend to Maryland and Fletcher, Minmi, and Beresfield and Tarro as a "critical investigation area" to alleviate heavy vehicle traffic in the growing western corridor.
Labor ward 4 councillor Elizabeth Adamczyk said there had been a "gross oversight" of the western suburbs in state government planning for infrastructure and transport.
"We have isolated suburbs where there is one single lane road in one single lane road out, no rail services and limited buses, no cycleways," she said.
"We have large swathes of existing and growing populations in our western corridor in locations completely unserved by adequate transport links.
"These infrastructure deficits have impacts on our residents, it leads to things like long commutes... it leads to car-based low density, large detached dwellings far away from other local centres or in our inner city.
"We also have increasingly concentrated lower and middle income populations in these parts of the city, who can only find available properties to rent or buy on the urban fringe that might be employed in the CBD, or employed in either of our largest employers in the city in health education at the university or the John Hunter."
Cr Adamczyk said while these areas had been recognised as being able to absorb a large share of the city's growth, they had been "neglected" in state planning policy.
"We now have lots of land selling in Minmi, no house, just land, upwards of half a million dollars," she said. "This is the antithesis of good planning, it's precisely the opposite of what we need to be doing in our suburbs."
Greens councillor John Mackenzie said the list was a "comprehensive" look at the city's growing transport needs.
"I remember some of these points being raised in the 2056 transport strategy in 2018, and I guess the tragedy of all of this is that they're still on the list," he said.
