LABOR leader Luke Foley has said he will dump the second harbour rail tunnel to connect the North West Rail line to the Bankstown line if he wins the March state election.
“I am not convinced another connection from the north is a priority for the city,” Mr Foley said yesterday, as he promised to release his infrastructure plan next month.
“I am looking at all the proposals on the drawing board at the moment and I’ll have a policy before the public of NSW early in the campaign.”
Premier Mike Baird is promising to use the $20 billion he says he will reap from a 49 per cent long-term lease of electricity networks to build the second harbour rail tunnel, as well as new connections to the north and south for the WestConnex Motorway.
Without the second harbour crossing rapid transit line, the $8.3 billion North West Rail Link would begin at Rouse Hill and end at Chatswood, creating a possible logjam.
Labor has committed to the WestConnex project and to maintaining the North West Rail, but it has to find ways of funding other projects given it is going to the March 28 poll opposing the sale of the electricity “poles and wires”.
The second harbour crossing has been costed at $10.4 b.
Mr Foley said he did not want to comment further until he released his policy. Mr Baird has promised $10.4 billion for a Sydney Rapid Transit line including a second Sydney Harbour crossing, new CBD stations and conversion of the Bankstown Line to rapid transit. The government has also promised $1 billion for a Western Sydney Rail Upgrade Program to improve the network, $1 billion for Parramatta Light Rail, a $4.5 billion Western Harbour road tunnel and $1.5 billion WestConnex connections to the south and west. I
t is likely Labor will also commit to Parramatta Light Rail, with ex-leader John Robertson having pledged money for a feasibility study into the project. But Mr Foley would not say whether he would keep WestConnex extensions.
He told 2GB he was sceptical that as much as $20 billion could be raised from the poles and wires sale, and claimed he could use the existing capital infrastructure program to build projects. “The state has a $15 billion annual infrastructure spend, or $150 billion over 10 years,” Mr Foley said.
Mr Baird hit back last night, saying without the Sydney Rapid Transit “all heavy rail lines are forecast to reach capacity between 2017 and 2024”.
“Anybody who opposes SRT also opposes a 60 per cent increase in the capacity of the rail system during peak periods, along with end-to-end journeys from the outer-northwest to the southwest, without the need for interchange at Chatswood,” he said.
“Labor’s legacy to NSW was a $30 billion infrastructure backlog … they have learned nothing and lack vision.”
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/luke-foley-derails-second-harbour-rail... Does not matter what the union puppet foley says.
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