The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has continued to cast doubt over the future of a key metro line connecting Sydney’s western suburbs with the east, as he insists he will not let the project’s ballooning bill “destroy the budget”.
Minns’ comments have triggered a fierce reaction from supporters of the Metro West line, which include the opposition, Sydney lord mayor, rail industry, developers and even one Labor MP whose electorate was promised metro connectivity.
On Wednesday morning, Minns stood firm in his resistance to committing to the Metro West project as he awaits the findings of a review into the line, which he claims has seen costs overrun by $17bn to a total of $25bn.
After committing to the line in the lead-up to the election, Minns last week flagged delays to the 2030 opening timeframe promised by the previous Coalition government, as well as potentially adding in extra stations on the line between the Sydney CBD and Westmead.
However, in recent days he has entertained questions about axing the project on which tunnel boring and land clearing has already progressed.
“The bottom line is we have to work out a way to pay for Metro West that doesn’t destroy the budget, because that’s what we’ve been left with by the previous government,” Minns said at a press conference in western Sydney.
“If we make a decision to axe the project, then you could take my head off then. But in the meantime, let’s let this review do its job and report back to government,” he said.
Discussing Labor’s claims of a $17bn cost blowout, Minns spoke of the “massive opportunity cost” of the project.
“Now $17bn, to put it in context, is the equivalent of 20 brand new hospitals in NSW. It’s the equivalent of 200 brand new schools in NSW. It’s the same amount of money that you’d spend on 8,500 brand new hospital beds.
“When you consider the massive pressure our hospital system is under, with people waiting in emergency departments, the blowouts alone are reason enough to have a comprehensive review into where this is going wrong.”
Minns suggested it was irresponsible to continue with the project without reconsideration.
“The old way of doing things – which was basically ‘the government’s job is to sign cheques, close their eyes, and not comment about these projects’ – is not working,” he said.
The government has received an interim report of the independent review into the Metro West and Sydney’s other metro rail projects, but it is yet to be released. A decision on Metro West’s future is expected by the state budget in September.
Construction works on the Metro West have already begun, with the NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, saying Minns would be breaking a promise if he cancelled or delayed the project and that he knew how much the project would cost before the election.
Speakman said any delays, including those brought about by adding extra stations to the line, would push back new housing on the growth corridor planned along the line.
“A multitude of projects were delayed by the previous Labor government and they never happened,” Speakman told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ve got an urgent need for housing now in Sydney, any delay delays that housing.
“It is incredibly important for commuters between Sydney and greater western Sydney … I don’t want to see any possible additional stations causing a delay to construction and delivery,” Speakman said.
The City of Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, said the metro west line was “too important to drop”, and noted how the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House were also expensive at the time of construction.
“Leaders must look beyond what is hard in the moment and build what is needed for future communities,” she tweeted.
“The government can’t simply build expensive toll roads and expect our growing population to drive and pay high costs for the privilege – it’s bad for the environment and it’s bad for commuters,” Moore said, while expressing support for adding extra stations to allow “much-needed additional housing along the corridor”.
The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) said abandoning or delaying the line would “leave residents of western Sydney stranded from public transport”.
“Halting major projects like the Sydney Metro West line mid-construction, with tunnel boring already in full swing, is going to cost the NSW taxpayer more in the long run and have significant negative impacts on sustainable growth,” Caroline Wilkie, the ARA CEO, said.
The Parramatta Labor MP Donna Davis, whose electorate stands to benefit from the line running through it to serve projected population growth, said metro west “is a project our community needs” but said it was “completely understandable” for the government “to work out a way to pay for it”.
Meanwhile, developer landholders along the metro west corridor have come out saying they are willing to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to build new stations along the line in exchange for being allowed to build thousands of extra homes surrounding the stations.
Sydney Metro West is planned to be a 24km line moving up to 40,000 people an hour in each direction from the newly built Hunter Street station in the CBD through Parramatta, Olympic Park and to Westmead, and has been touted as an important way to alleviate pressure on the highly patronised Western line of the city’s train network.
Ahead of the March election, Labor did not match the Coalition’s pledge for a business case to link Metro West from Westmead to the station planned for Western Sydney airport that is already slated to connect with the Northwest Metro line.
