(CityRail) Gillard's $2b transport fix (August 11, 2010)

Gillard's $2b transport fix
PHILLIP COOREY CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
August 11, 2010

THE Gillard government will make a push into western Sydney today with a promise to build the long-awaited $2.6 billion rail link between Parramatta and Epping.

In what will be the biggest single funding announcement of her campaign so far, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will promise $2.1 billion in federal funds towards the project, with the state government to contribute $520 million.

Preliminary work on the 14-kilometre heavy rail link, which will shave 25 minutes off the trip from Chatswood to Parramatta, will begin next year and construction is due to be completed in 2017.

To ensure the state government delivers on its end of the deal, the project will be overseen by the federal government's infrastructure body, Infrastructure Australia.

Ms Gillard will be joined by the Premier, Kristina Keneally, for an announcement today in the western suburbs. It will precede Ms Gillard's one-hour town hall-style meeting at Rooty Hill RSL.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, will have his own one-hour session after Ms Gillard, having again declined her invitation for a debate.

Ms Gillard and the Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, will announce today that the upgrading of the M5 East, and the F3-to-M2 link, will also be overseen by Infrastructure Australia.

Planning studies into options for both projects are due by the end of the year but the federal government will say today that both will need significant private sector financing.

Options being considered by the reviews include tolls and an ''availability payment'' model, in which a private company builds the extension and leases it back to the government.

The M5 East expansion may include another tunnel alongside the existing one which carries 95,000 vehicles a day.

Along with Queensland, western Sydney is a key election battleground. The Parramatta-Epping rail link will stretch between the Labor-held seats of Bennelong and Parramatta.

It will also alleviate pressure on the city-bound western line which services commuters in other key marginal seats further west such as Lindsay, Greenway and Macquarie.

The new link will consist of a tunnel from Parramatta to a new station at Rosehill-Camellia. The existing single track from Rosehill to Carlingford will be made a two-way line. Carlingford will then be connected to Epping by a new tunnel. The stations at Parramatta, Rydalmere, Dundas, Telopea and Carlingford will be upgraded.

Mr Albanese told the Herald the link would not be a cure-all for congestion problems in the west but it would be an important first step.

''You can't solve all of Sydney's transport needs in one step,'' he said.

The state government contribution will be spent first with the federal funds not scheduled to be available until 2014-15, by when the budget is due to be back in surplus.

Ms Gillard will say the project meets her pledge to try to ease the pressures caused by rapid population growth.

Today's announcement will also signify a rapprochement with the state government.

The federal Labor government under Kevin Rudd was loath to give it any significant infrastructure funding because of its reputation for mismanagement and poor service delivery.

For this reason, the NSW government will be required to work with Infrastructure Australia.

If Labor loses the state election in March, the NSW funding for the project which Ms Keneally identified in her $10-billion, 10-year transport plan, will be locked into the forward estimates and pressure would be on the Liberals to keep it there or lose the project.

The announcement will be one of several big promises being unveiled by Ms Gillard as the election nears.

Mr Abbott chose to stay away yesterday from the Coalition's alternative broadband policy launch which proposes to scrap the government's $43 billion project and replace it with a $6 billion system which would be much slower than the government's.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cityrail
• railcorp
• nsw
• sydney
• public
• transport
• parramatta

[morrison2791]

You know labor are not very good with train lines anywere and this is a big lie .

[mikldude]

one government after another (liberal and labour) is as guilty as each other for lack of forward vision, i`d rather have these turkey politicians to go ahead and build stuff thats gonna service the projected population growth for 100 years at least, they build us under size freeways that become useless in 2 years, what a waste of time and effort, the same with the rail ways, a year ten student has more imagination ffs.

[DanaCARE]

If they dont, we have to wait longer for us to have maglev trains when other countries will havie it first then us..they're way faster and efficient in carbon footprint!!

[DanaCARE]

The government should stop wasting money on these diesel? locamotive trains that are getting a little too old and invest more into modern science to start renovating the whole rail network and change it all into Magnetic levitated trains (AKA Maglev trains)..these trains are already into existence and have been built in Japan etc for testing right now and they are running very well now..scientists just need to do more tweeking and more funds for it to finish and operate in the real world.

[clap4makkapakka123]

2017?! I cant wait dat fuckin long!

[als2507]

Gillard gets things done, we know that

[FUCKZIONISM666]

watch

Israeli spy ring in Australia EXPOSED Jun 09

[dacptn]

ha! crock of shite!

[v306]

I think trusting labor on public transport related issues has been a mistake for at least the last 10 years... people wont fall for the sort of promise that's been done before...