A bid by NSW Greens to stop the duplication of the Great Western Highway until rail alternatives are examined has been defeated in parliament after the Labor Party amended the notice of motion.
Greens transport spokeswoman, Abigail Boyd, introduced the notice during private members business in the parliament last Wednesday.
It called for construction on the duplication of the highway between Katoomba and Lithgow to be stopped until there had been a proper analysis of an integrated transport approach.
It also called on the government to explore the feasibility of upgrading the Mountains rail line to expand capacity.
But while the ALP supported looking at rail improvements, it rejected halting the highway duplication. It successfully moved that the sentence be taken out of Ms Boyd's motion. The notice of motion was then passed.
Blue Mountains Greens councillor Kerry Brown, who successfully moved a similar motion at the last council meeting, said she was pleased the issue was debated but disappointed with Labor's stance.
"Thanks to the Labor amendment, Transport for NSW could widen the highway to Lithgow for upwards of $4.5 billion and then discover this has simply duplicated what rail could and should do."
Cr Brown said governments were increasingly improving rail, citing the 1,700 km inland rail from Melbourne to Brisbane via Parkes and the duplication of freight lines to Port Botany with a hub at St Marys.
But Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle said the Ward 1 councillor's comments were "ill-informed".
"Unfortunately, Councillor Brown's comments are ill-informed and do not reflect the debate or the amendments," she said.
"The initial proposal made by the NSW Greens would have seen a halt on all work on the entirety of the Great Western Highway, including all safety upgrades. So the NSW Greens and Labor together passed amendments to obtain a good outcome that didn't have unintended consequences.
"Do I think that progress on the Great Western Highway duplication project should be immediately paused and scrutinised? Absolutely. But what was put forward in the NSW Parliament was not the way to achieve that."
Spokesman for the Blackheath Highway Action Group, Michael Paag, said the rail improvements were "game changers" for the region.
He said the inland rail would be able to move the equivalent of 674,000 round B-double trips per year, shifting 40.6 million tonnes of freight from road to rail.
"Spending $4.5 billion to duplicate the highway ... won't solve the transport needs of the NSW Central West.
"The 10 minutes they claim will be cut off the journey time west of Katoomba will be added further east at multiple pinch points on the highway which are already congested, whereas minor investments in the rail network could benefit the Mountains and the Central West," Mr Paag said.
