At a function a few weeks ago, a NSW bureaucrat told me that he had woken up early to catch the first train trip on the new Sydney Metro City line, which ran from Sydenham to Chatswood.

He showed me a photo of himself on the platform, about to board the train, and another photo of him inside the carriage with the doors closed, presumably just before departure. I’m not sure who took the photos – perhaps it was his wife.

He made an interesting comment, especially considering his employer. He said he liked to see governments build infrastructure because, when you can see tangible things, you know your taxes have gone toward something real.

I guess he was expressing the frustration many feel that his work involved sending emails, attending meetings, and engaging in endless talk – much of it probably irrelevant, possibly detrimental.

It took me a few days to follow his lead, but I sampled the new Metro line. The nearest station to my apartment is Barangaroo. I took a lift down to the ground floor of my building, and after a short walk, I used another lift to descend the cliff which separates Barangaroo from Kent Street. At the bottom of that lift, you’re confronted with the magnificent, twisted shape of Crown Casino.

Not far from there is the new Barangaroo Metro station. I took the train to Chatswood, made my way to Rebel Sports in Westfield, made a purchase, and retraced my route back home.

It took me a while to figure out what was bothering me about the whole excursion. Sure enough, it was efficient – I got to Chatswood and back within an hour, including my visit to Rebel.

Had I driven and parked, the round trip would have probably taken two hours. If I’d taken the North Shore line train from Wynyard, perhaps 90 minutes.

A notorious traffic trouble spot on the North Shore is the Pacific Highway section from Chatswood to Crows Nest. The Metro train traversed this section in three minutes. I’d estimate it would be a minimum of 15 minutes driving.

What concerned me was how little effort I needed to exert to complete the round trip. In all, I counted sixteen rides on escalators, including six just to enter and exit Barangaroo Metro station.

The biggest hurdle I encountered during the trip was a slightly raised ramp on the way to the Metro station, where over a distance of 20 metres, there was a rise of probably 80 centimetres.

Something else was bothering me as well. It dawned on me that I hadn’t seen any stationary steps at the Barangaroo Metro station. The only means of getting down to and up from the platform was via mechanical means – escalators and lifts.

This seemed odd. At Wynyard’s platform number 4, for example, access from the entrance level is by stationary steps, or a lift.

Lift access is understandable, it is essential for people in wheelchairs and many elderly individuals who are too stiff in the hips to raise their feet.

Was it true that the new Metro stations had eliminated stationary stairs in favour of only escalators and lifts?

This thought bothered me so much that I went back to Barangaroo Station to double-check.

Sadly, I was right. Access to the platform is only via mechanical platforms. I discovered the same is true at Metro’s new Gadigal station as well. I asked a Metro worker and he confirmed that all new stations are designed without steps.

Step access is possible at Metro’s Chatswood station but this is only because it shares a platform with the old North Shore line train.

Last year, a friend of mine returned from a visit to Hong Kong; one set of his relatives lives on the 11th floor of an apartment building which, apparently, had no lift.

He said every family member looked like triathletes. In Hong Kong, courier companies typically charge delivery costs on a per-step basis, so the boys in the family hauled white goods and furniture up by hand and shoulder. They removed the old item with equal physical effort, having to control the heavy loads as they descended.

Even lugging just a few bags of groceries up eleven flights would equate to a pretty good workout by most standards.

I can understand why infrastructure designers want everything so easy and smooth, but it seems contradictory that Australian governments, which spend billions on public health initiatives – partly aimed at encouraging physical activity – yet simultaneously approve public transport proposals that eliminate the option of walking up and down stairs.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 67 per cent of Australians are either overweight or obese. For children and adolescents, the percentage is 25 per cent. These proportions have been rising for decades.

At what point does the quest for never-ending ease and comfort become too self-destructing? What if we have to mobile a population to fight a war?

My guess is that the new Metro stations do have physical stairs somewhere, likely for emergency evacuation in the event of a fire.

At the very least, these steps should be available for regular use, with signs pointing to them. That way, those who want to use their commute to build some strength in their legs have the option to do so.

Even better would be for the Metro stations to turn off their escalators and force people to ascend and descend using their own effort, leaving those who genuinely need assistance to queue for the lift.

Nick Hossack is a public policy consultant. He is former policy director at the Australian Bankers’ Association and former adviser to Prime Minister John Howard.