NSW govt play down $1bn blowout
The New South Wales government is downplaying a billion-dollar blowout in the cost of replacing the state’s inter-city trains.
The budget for the next-generation fleet, which was set to be rolled out between 2019 and 2024 has risen from $2.8 to $3.9 billion, according to the Auditor-General’s report on transport.
The new trains are set to operate in Sydney and the suburbs, linking Newcastle and the Hunter, South Coast, the Blue Mountains.
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The report attributes the blowout to “potential foreign exchange fluctuations, a new maintenance facility and related infrastructure costs.”
But Labor’s transport spokesman Ryan Park said the government clearly has not done its homework.
“This is a billion dollars extra of taxpayer’s money that is going to have to be found to fund these new trains,” he said.
“This blowout means stations won’t be able to get upgraded, it means that major road projects won’t be able to be completed.”
Minister says ‘no reason to be critical of great project’
A spokesman for Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the higher figure arose partly because the project “now has one budget that was rolled together from different projects”.
“Foreign exchange rates have had an impact on cost but that’s no reason to be critical of what is another great project for NSW,” the spokesman said.
“There’s only one thing that’s breathtaking, never has any political party been more anti-transport than this opposition.”
In July, the State government shortlisted four consortia to tender for the procurement of the new fleet, with a contract to be awarded next year.
It’s the second billion-dollar blowout revealed among major NSW projects in a week; on Friday, an updated business case for Westconnex was released showing the 33-kilometre road will cost $16.8 billion.
That’s $1.4 billion more than at the last estimate in the June budget.
Defending the motorway, Roads Minister Duncan Gay said the updated business case also suggested the motorway would deliver $1.88 worth of benefits for every dollar spent.