Metro West hangs by a thread as Minns flags project review
By Alexandra Smith and Michael Koziol
The $25 billion Metro West train line is hanging by a thread after NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed he is considering cancelling it altogether, saying the project had “barely begun” despite ground being cleared for stations and tunnel boring under way.
Nervous stakeholders in western Sydney – many of whom were braced for the worst following recent meetings with ministers – criticised the government for turning its back on the region and throwing into doubt its own housing strategy, which was partly based on higher density near metro stops.
Premier Chris Minns has not hosed down fears that Metro West could be axed altogether, while advocates say “just get on with it”.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer, James Brickwood
Asked four times if there would definitely be a metro train in some form between Sydney CBD and Parramatta, Minns said it was being reviewed, and he wanted to ensure it was still value for money and that “we fully know what we’re getting”.
“I’m not taking anything off the table,” he said when asked if it might be axed. “I’m not announcing that we’re cancelling it, but I do need to make sure we’re having an independent look.”
Minns conceded he did not take a policy of scrapping the project to the election, but denied it was disingenuous to consider it now.
“Nobody knew it was going to cost $25 billion,” he told 2GB radio, noting the estimate had already blown out from $16 billion and was realistically “probably even more” than $25 billion.
The metro construction site in the heart of Parramatta.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“It’s almost like the NSW government’s job is just to continue to provide money to the builders [or] the operators of these metro projects without any independent assessment.”
Asked to confirm whether the new costing for the project was now $25 billion, as repeatedly quoted by the premier, a spokesman for Infrastructure NSW said: “Infrastructure NSW’s assurance reviews are advice to cabinet. Information contained in the reviews is cabinet in confidence.”
Minns has previously ruled out tearing up contracts, and noted on Tuesday that $9 billion worth of Metro West contracts had already been signed. In an earlier interview, he suggested the project may be altered rather than cancelled.
The line is currently slated to run between Hunter Street in the CBD to Westmead, with seven stops in between including Pyrmont, Five Dock and Sydney Olympic Park.
“We need to make sure the alignment is right, we need to make sure there are enough stations to warrant that spending, because you don’t want a situation that in 10 or 20 years’ time people say, ‘That is a good piece of infrastructure but why are there only four or five stations between Hunter Street and Westmead when it such a densely populated part of Sydney?’ ” Minns told ABC Radio Sydney.
The Hunter Street terminus has been excavated and tunnelling is currently continuing westward. Sydney Metro maps show two tunnel boring machines, Daphne and Beatrice, have tunnelled just under one kilometre westward from the Bays Precinct station.
The premier’s foreshadowing of “big calls” about the future of Sydney’s metro rail projects has spooked stakeholders, particularly around western Sydney, Parramatta and Olympic Park. The government won the seat of Parramatta from the Liberals with a 15 per cent swing.
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chairman Christopher Brown said he accepted financial circumstances were tough, “but we cannot grind NSW to a halt to pray at the altar of the budget gods”.
Allison Taylor, chief executive of the Sydney Olympic Park Business Association, said a delay would not be worthwhile even if it meant stations were added to Metro West.
“I’d be saying, ‘Just get on with it,’ ” she said. “It’s an absolute priority, both in terms of jobs and housing. The two go together. The longer you put something off, the more expensive it becomes.”
The government has repeatedly said its plan to fix the state’s housing crisis involves driving up supply near train and metro stations. The executive director of Business Western Sydney, David Borger, a former Labor minister, said Sydney could not afford for Metro West to be delayed if the state government was to make good on that promise.
“You can’t build high-density precincts without high-quality public transport,” Borger said. “The best location for new high-density living and jobs is around these new stations. The good news is that the government has compulsorily acquired land around these planned metro stations, but I can’t see how we get the housing uplift without the transport.”
Borger said it was critical Parramatta, Olympic Park and Wentworth Point communities had confidence Metro West will be built in a “realistic” time frame.
“Boring machines are already in the ground and on their way from White Bay towards Parramatta. Let’s just get on with it,” he said.
Borger said significant funding had already been invested in converting the T3 Bankstown line to metro standard. “That line needs to be finished to greatly improve the overall reliability and capacity of the Sydney train network,” he said.
Rick Graf, development director at Billbergia, which has strategic landholdings in the corridor, said it would be a “tragic misdirection of priorities” if the government kept converting the Bankstown line to metro but dumped Metro West.
“This project was announced in 2016, we’re already eight years into that program,” he said. “It was announced then because the western line was approaching capacity. It was designed to unlock the corridor to create more housing and jobs between the two CBDs.”
Andy Marks, executive director of the Centre for Western Sydney, said the current Metro West route “does little to deliver on the promised distribution of jobs into Sydney’s west”, and if Labor were to correct that, it would deliver much better value for money.
“It is surprising that the nearly $116 million the Coalition spent on consultants for the project failed to address that fundamental flaw,” he said.
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