The State Labor Government must look at ways of cutting costs to ensure the north-west rail link is built, Member for Castle Hill Michael Richardson told Parliament this week.

“We do not have to have gold-plated taps in the toilets and Italian marble lining the station concourses,” Mr Richardson said in his speech.

“The more expensive the line is, the less likely it will ever be built.

“We should look at building as much of the North West Rail link on the surface as possible. Railways are very expensive to build underground - a rule of thumb is that it costs 10 times as much to go underground as it does to build on the surface.

“One good starting point would be the Burns Road station, which is planned to be underground when the rest of the railway line is on the surface. That would save between $300 million and $500 million.

”There is a question mark over whether The Hills Centre station, next to Castle Hill Showground, is needed at all.

“Once upon a time it was proposed to remove all the spoil for the line from there, but it is now intended to send it by conveyor belt to an area near Balmoral Road, Kellyville, for removal by truck.

“The 2006 environmental impact statement predicted that The Hills Centre station will have the lowest patronage of any of the six stations on the line—just 7,000 a day—which is not surprising, given that there are no homes at all on the northern side of Carrington Road where the station would be located.

“Labor councillors on The Hills Shire Council want to knock down the council chambers, which are only 26-years-old, as well as the 22-year-old, $24 million Hills Centre, and replace them with flats when the line is opened. Surely it would be more cost effective to retain the showground, the council chambers and The Hills Centre and scrap the station instead.

”That would save a further $500 million.

“Bringing construction forward would save a further $1.9 billion, making a total of $2.9 billion saved.

“I believe a determined and committed government could probably trim the cost by a further $1 billion to $2.3 billion.

“The Premier and the Minister for Transport and Roads must meet with their advisers and come up with a way of making this essential infrastructure both achievable and deliverable.

“The people of Sydney, particularly the long-suffering residents of The Hills, expect nothing less.”

Extract from Hansard, March 9 2010

CASTLE HILL PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Mr MICHAEL RICHARDSON (Castle Hill) [1.12 p.m.]: Last month the Premier announced yet another public transport blueprint, in the process scrapping the legacy of her predecessor—the unlamented CBD Metro—and committing her Government to building the North West Rail Link. The Premier said that she wants to start building the line from Epping to Rouse Hill in 2017 and finish the work by 2024; that is, she wants to start digging not in this term of Parliament, not in the next term of Parliament, but halfway through the term after that. Does anyone actually believe her?

This project was first proposed in 1998 as a two-station line from Epping to Castle Hill and scheduled for completion this year. Instead of reannouncing the line for the umpteenth time, the Premier should have been preparing to open it. That she is not is an indictment of the entire Labor Government. The North West Rail Link is not negotiable. The Hills is the worst-served part of Sydney for public transport, yet it is one of the fastest-growing areas of Sydney. This Labor Government has duded it time and time again. Every transport planner has acknowledged the need for improved public transport in The Hills, and buses are no substitute for a rail line. The Government's bureaucrats are now predicting gridlock within six to seven years around York Street and the Queen Victoria Building during the morning peak.

At around the time the Premier says that work will start on the rail line, bus services will shudder to a halt. What brilliant planning! What foresight! What geniuses they are in this Government! Moreover, the Premier's grand plan does not include building the Parramatta to Epping link. First promised by the Fahey Government in 1994 and confirmed in this Government's Action for Transport 2010 plan in December 1998, that link—the Carlingford line to Epping—is a critical piece in the puzzle that is the Sydney rail network. Now it is apparently completely off the Government's agenda, condemning the long-suffering people of Carlingford to worsening traffic and transport woes. Carlingford is the only railway station in the whole of The Hills shire. It is a Clayton's railway station—the railway station you have when you are not having a railway station. It has tracks and sleepers and a ticket office that is manned for a couple of hours each morning.

Last year The Hills Shire Council voted in favour of the Carlingford Precinct Plan, which shoehorns a further 7,000 people into the area around Carlingford railway station. In the absence of decent public transport it will be a planning disaster. Yet this Premier, formerly the Minister for Planning, the same person who scrapped the Parramatta to Epping rail link on which it depended, has insisted on its going ahead. The Government said that the North West Rail Link would cost $6.7 billion to build. Just over three years ago the price estimate was half that amount. The Minister for Transport and Roads has conceded that $1.9 billion of that $3.4 billion cost blowout is caused by delaying the project for so long. No-one seems to know where the other $1.5 billion came from.

The more expensive the line is, the less likely it will ever be built. The Government must start looking at ways of cutting costs. We do not need a Rolls-Royce railway—a Holden will be fine. We do not have to have gold-plated taps in the toilets and Italian marble lining the station concourses. Bringing construction forward will cut the cost to $4.8 billion. But we need to save more. Railways are very expensive to build underground. A rule of thumb is that it costs 10 times as much to go underground as it does to build on the surface. We should look at building as much of the North West Rail link on the surface as possible. One good starting point would be the Burns Road station, which, for reasons that elude me, is planned to be underground when the railway line is on the surface. That would save between $300 million and $500 million.

Also, there is a question mark over whether The Hills Centre station, next to Castle Hill Showground, is needed at all. Once upon a time it was proposed to remove all the spoil for the line from there, but it

is now intended to send it by conveyor belt to an area near Balmoral Road, Kellyville, for removal by truck. The 2006 environmental impact statement predicted that The Hills Centre station will have the lowest patronage of any of the six stations on the line—just 7,000 a day—which is not surprising given that there are no homes at all on the northern side of Carrington Road where the station would be located. Labor councillors at The Hills Shire Council want to knock down the council chambers, which are only 26-years-old, as well as the 22-year-old, $24 million Hills Centre, and replace them with flats when the line is opened. Surely it would be more cost effective to retain the showground, the council chambers and The Hills Centre and scrap the station instead.

That would save a further $500 million, less the cost of providing additional parking for the nearby Castle Hill station. That is $2.9 billion of the $3.4 billion cost blowout saved. I believe a determined and committed government could probably trim the cost by a further $1 billion to $2.3 billion. The Premier and the Minister for Transport and Roads must meet with their advisers and come up with a way of making this essential infrastructure both achievable and deliverable. The people of Sydney, particularly the long-suffering residents of The Hills, expect nothing less.