Region. Underground metro to north-west

Residents of north-western Sydney could have an underground metro line from the CBD without the metro system taking up a critical heavy rail corridor beneath central Sydney, government documents show. The metro to Castle Hill and Rouse Hill would start at St James station, which is less crowded than Central, Town Hall and Wynyard stations, and follow an east-west alignment via Martin Place, then on to Wynyard, Pyrmont, Rozelle and beyond. The details are contained in the Metro Link plan of March last year and pushed by the former premier Morris Iemma. But instead the Sydney Metro Authority has claimed the vital corridor under Pitt Street for its controversial seven-kilometre, $5.3 billion City Metro between Central and Rozelle, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Region. $603 million in fresh food waste

Sydney households annually throw out $603 million fresh food waste, which is close to the $660 million combined income of all the farms in the metropolitan basin, according to University of Western Sydney's Urban Research Centre, in Parramatta. ''Sydney is such a rich consumer society that it happily throws away in value as much as Sydney farmers receive in income,'' said Professor Phillip O'Neill, director of the centre, in a story in The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney residents spent about $6.5 billion last year - or more than a third of total household food and beverage budgets - on takeaway, alcohol or dining out, the centre has calculated using ABS figures. This was 36 times what they spent on fresh vegetables grown within the basin, it found.