A new report from Fairfax has suggested Transport for NSW is being driven to prioritise toll road projects over public transport by the state government.
The Monday article in The Sydney Morning Herald cites an internal Transport for NSW memo, acquired through the Government Information (Public Access) Act.
According to the Herald, the September 26, 2016 memo referenced a direction made by the state cabinet to not compare to cost of a toll road against a public transport alternative.
The road in question was the F6 Extension, a proposed link between the M1 Princes Motorway at Waterfall, and the WestConnex interchange at St Peters.
The memo quoted by Fairfax appears to criticise a lack of consideration for public transport alternatives, in Transport for NSW’s analysis of the F6 Extension.
“In the case of the F6 Extension, a diverse range of design and location options were considered, but only in the context of a tolled and untolled road-based solution,” the memo is quoted as saying.
“The existence of a cabinet direction not to consider other options must not preclude the consideration of public transport.”
The document also reportedly referenced similar cabinet directives for studies of the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel, and Beaches Link road tunnel project.
But NSW transport minister Andrew Constance has reportedly dismissed the story.
“[The memo] is an email that has been cobbled together by some bureaucrat which is ill-informed of the cabinet process,” Constance was quoted as saying by News.com.au on Monday.
Constance reportedly pointed to the number of major public transport currently underway in New South Wales, including the Sydney Metro rail project and the Sydney CBD and South East light rail project.
But critics of the F6 Extension have said the public transport alternative is to complete the Maldon to Dombarton rail line.
The Maldon-Dombarton is a partially constructed rail line, cancelled in 1988, that would diverge from the Main South Line at Maldon, and would link to the Moss Vale-Unanderra line at Dombarton, 35 kilometres away.
The public transport aspect of the project is that it would remove coal trains from the Illawarra line, boosting capacity for passenger trains, and reducing the journey from Wollongong to Central from 90 minutes, to 60 minutes.
“We need a faster rail alternative for people to get to the Sydney CBD from Wollongong, not an expensive new toll road in the South,” Greens NSW transport spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said on Monday.
“The Government’s obsession with toll roads means the public loses out on cheaper public transport solutions. A clear cabinet directive not to consider rail as an alternative to the M6 is outrageous.
“Is the government promising private toll road operators that they will not build public transport to compete with a super profit generating toll road?
“An F6 toll road will funnel even more cars into the Westconnex forcing people to pay higher and higher tolls.
“The government does PPP’s with private companies behind closed doors or as unsolicited projects. There is no involvement of the public in secret public-private partnerships.”