The federal government needs to start funding public transport, the industry lobby says as it releases a report showing the area around a new Sydney rail line has grown faster than the rest of the city.

The opening of the Epping to Chatswood line in 2009 helped spark a surge in activity in the Macquarie Park area, the report commissioned by the Tourism and Transport Forum says.

Boom time: Macquarie Park station brought growth to the area.

"This report shows for the first time the additional economic growth that public transport infrastructure delivers and means the debate over public transport funding is no longer ideological, it is economic," said Margy Osmond, the chief executive of the forum, which commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to study the opening of the Epping to Chatswood line.

Ms Osmond's report is being used by the transport industry to call on the federal government to change its policy on transport investment. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the federal government would not fund urban public transport, but would fund urban motorways and other big road projects.