THE back streets of Epping have become a carpark after the $2.3 billion Epping to Chatswood Rail Link was built without any commuter parking.

Locals said new drivers fill the streets from the early hours as they join 10,000 commuters on the line.

The new line has attracted residents from Sydney's west and northwest after the State Government scrapped the Epping-Parramatta section of the new link, and the $12 billion northwest line to Rouse Hill.

Locals blamed the Government's failure to address the "critical shortage" of commuter parking and to deliver integrated public transport.

Once-quiet residential streets have filled with commuters searching for a parking spot, shadow Attorney-General Greg Smith, a local, said.

"In the last year it has become so much worse, even where I live there used to be no cars at all, and now it is clogged each morning," he said.

"We are seeing cars jammed across driveways and even people stealing things from front yards."

Mr Smith said the problem would worsen in coming months, when a new timetable integrated the link with the rest of the CityRail network

Campbelltown resident Jamie Baker searches daily for a park since his workplace moved to Epping last year.

"I feel sorry for the residents, it's really hard to find a parking spot anywhere," Mr Baker said yesterday.

"It's usually just a matter of driving around until you grab a spot." Parramatta and Hornsby councils formed the Epping Traffic and Parking Joint Lobbying Committee to fight for parking at the station or somewhere local.

"Extended peak-hour traffic, gridlocked local streets and neighbourhoods crammed with parked cars are now a daily reminder of the Government's failure to develop an integrated approach to traffic and transport for the Epping community," Parramatta mayor Tony Issa said.

Originally published as Rail line bungle 'ruined Epping'