Member for Blue Mountains Trish Doyle has branded the Baird government’s new train program “hopeless”, as revelations came to light last week about a $1.1 billion blow out in the cost of replacing the intercity fleet.
Less than 18 months after then transport minister Gladys Berejiklian unveiled plans to buy 65 new intercity trains and 520 carriages, the cost of the project has risen to $3.9 billion from $2.8 billion. The new trains are needed to service the Blue Mountains as well as the Illawarra, Newcastle and the Central Coast.
When she announced the order in May last year, Ms Berejiklian said the best way to avoid past delays was to buy the trains "off-the-shelf with proven technology from the world's best". In the past, trains such as the Waratah were designed specifically to suit conditions in NSW.
But it has emerged that the trains the government initially planned to order would be able to run only on intercity lines because they would be too long and narrow for underground platforms on Sydney's suburban network, which are usually about 170 metres long. In contrast, platforms at regional stations are about 200 metres.
“It beggars belief that this sort of basic analysis hadn’t been undertaken before signing up to a multi-billion-dollar project. It’s just hopeless,” said Trish Doyle.
“New South Wales taxpayers are saddled with the cost of redesigning and re-engineering these new trains to work on our rail network, while Blue Mountains commuters are stuck on the platform waiting for a train that may never come, or which won’t take them very far.”
Transport for NSW has blamed "operational and network changes", the inclusion of a new maintenance facility and currency fluctuations for the $1.1 billion surge in the project's cost.
However, the department said it was too early to give detailed cost breakdowns that "might be required to introduce the fleet to the network".
"While we're aware of the high level requirements, the tender process will give us more detail on operational requirements to suit the particular train solution proposed by the successful consortia," it said.
The department declined to reveal any detail about what changes to trains or carriages were required, citing commercial sensitivities.
A spokesman for Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the train tender was affected by foreign exchange rates and now had one budget rolled together from different projects. "If Labor was running things they'd probably cancel it, reannounce it, spend millions and then cancel it again."
The department still expects the first of the new trains and carriages to be delivered in 2019.
