Despite Infrastructure NSW calling for delays due to costs and a lack of personnel, the NSW Government has decided to push on with the $600 million second stage of the Parramatta light rail project.

The decision by the Perrottet Government comes at a time when a number of key infrastructure projects have been put on the backburner, including the Beaches Link roadway in Sydney’s north and an extension to the M6 between Kogarah and Taren Point, which are estimated to eventually cost the government a sum of $20 billion.

Interestingly, Perrottet says he hopes his government’s legacy will be defined by major projects that seek to benefit the state.

“In terms of capacity constraints, you know what you can afford to do going forward, Parramatta light rail stage two was achievable, and it worked,” he tells the Sydney Morning Herald.

Perrottet says the decision to push on with the light rail project has nothing to do with pork barrelling, despite an expected push by Labor in the electorate when the election rolls around next March.

When the circumstances change you’ve got to have the humility to sit there and say, ‘Well, what’s the best way of staging projects that are in the best interest of people of our state?’”

Minister for Cities Rob Stokes says that despite the government being able to deliver all the projects in the one budget that it will not deviate from plans for both proposed motorways.

“Infrastructure is still very much the foundation of this government, it’s what we do, we build things. We will do everything, but we can’t do everything all at the same time,” he says.

“We will always come to a point where the massive ramp up was going to hit a business-as-usual sort of level. What we’re realising now is it’s important to moderate the contracting so that we’re not actually just bidding against ourselves and pushing out costs artificially.”

Stokes says the decision to go ahead with the light rail line in Parramatta was due to growth in the area.

“There’s going to be significant urban expansion there. Whereas Beaches Link and M6 stage two, they’re not areas where there’s going to be significant housing over that same period. So when we’re making choices about what to contract early, we’re obviously going to prefer those ones that are going to have the closest alignment with new housing supply.”

Funding has been set aside to include a bridge linking Melrose Park and Wentworth Point and for planning the project.

Jarrod Reedie

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