One would think the Sydney Metro West project would be a shoo-in for Labor’s support.
The line is slated to serve Labor electorates in the Inner West and West on its route to Westmead, as well as the Liberal electorate of Drummoyne and the Greens electorate of Balmain, both of which saw significant swings in favour of Labor in the most recent election and are now held on thin margins. Parramatta was claimed by Labor from the Liberals in 2023, and a cancellation would damage Labor’s image in Sydney’s second city centre — with the federal Labor member for Parramatta in July agreeing with Clover Moore AO, Sydney Lord Mayor, that the line is too important to be abandoned. This demonstrates how much is riding on the project at both of its termini, and indeed along the entire planned route.
One would also think public transport projects to be something naturally supported by a left-of-centre party, given public transportation’s inherent social benefits in supporting cohesive communities and improving mobility for all. However, in July this year, NSW Premier Chris Minns raised uncertainty about the project, floating the construction of additional stations along the route and refusing to rule out cancelling the line — already under construction — entirely.
While the new government has been seeking to cut costs all around, and construction is indeed well over-budget, the unfortunate truth is that NSW Labor has a dubious track record on public transport initiatives.
Until 2013, Sydney’s rail network and the intercity system that extends from it was operated under the CityRail brand. In this period, Sydney’s rail system suffered from technological inadequacy and sub-par service. A large portion of the fleet had no air conditioning. The network still relied on antiquated paper ticketing, a far cry from London’s Oyster system or Melbourne’s Myki card.
A series of metro lines was in fact floated during Labor’s previous stint in power on Macquarie St, when in 2008 a network was proposed to connect the city centre with the West, East and lower North Shore. The scale of the project was reduced significantly following the scaling back of privatisation plans for the electrical grid, which had been intended to pay for it. The metro proposal shrank into a suggested CBD Metro shuttle between Rozelle and the city centre — what little remained was scrapped entirely in 2010. Also proposed under the scheme was the North West Rail Link, resurrected under the Coalition government and opened in 2019 as the first stage of the Sydney Metro.
While in opposition, Labor did little to show itself to have improved, dogmatically lamenting that new intercity trains ordered by the government were “too wide” for the Blue Mountains line — as in fact was the entire electric fleet excluding the oldest class of intercity trains, a reflection of outdated infrastructure which Labor was in essence presenting an opposition to improving. Not to let the Coalition off the hook, it is also worth noting that safety standards were relaxed under the Coalition government, reducing the minimum allowed distance between trains and tunnel walls. Labor and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union also opposed the fleet’s design on safety grounds, partly as the trains were to operate without guards, with the Coalition government stubbornly refusing to listen to such concerns.
Furthermore, the last few Coalition years saw a wave of industrial action as rail workers protested being overworked with minimal wage growth, amongst rising living costs. This led to the entire Sydney Trains network being shut down for a day on Monday 21 February last year.
A would-be strike in January 2018 by rail workers was rejected by the FWC the week before it would have occurred. Furthermore, the Coalition’s outsourcing of public bus services to private operators, and overall privatisation of the public sector, has faced much criticism. In April, it was revealed that the Coalition government’s contracts with private bus operators, while penalising operators for falling below punctuality targets, did not count cancelled services as late. In essence, as Transport Minister Jo Haylen stated, “the former Liberal government created contracts with these private companies that actually give them financial incentives to cancel bus services.” The Transport Asset Holding Entity of New South Wales (TAHE), the state-owned corporation established by the government in 2020 to own transportation assets and replacing RailCorp, has also been a source of contention. It has faced investigation by the NSW Legislative Council public accountability committee. The auditor general found in January that TAHE was “unnecessarily complex” and had been established to meet the government’s “short-term budget objectives”.
However, the Coalition did undertake several essential public transport projects, and Labor would do well for itself and for the people of New South Wales to expand these projects. The benefits are clear — Sydney Trains patronage surged between 2013-14 and 2018-19, from 282.2 million journeys to 377.1 million. This was off the back of the opening of the South West Rail Link (initially announced under Labor), the introduction of Opal ticketing, increased services and a redesign of the network’s lines. Sydney’s light rail network saw even greater ridership growth in the same time frame, going from 3.9 million to 11.1 million. While this growth was reliant on the extension of the Inner West Light Rail, work for which started under Labor, the most recent figure of 32.5 million is the result of the CBD & South East Light Rail, devised and implemented almost entirely under the Coalition. While the utility of these projects is obvious, the Liberals’ poor track record on corruption, with “very excessive” prices paid to contractors, should be a point on which Labor can do significantly better.
Labor could take public transport investment yet further, if it desires to. For one, it should keep Metro West on track. It should also focus on improving regional rail travel, where improvements to rail infrastructure beyond metropolitan Sydney could provide service improvements complementing those offered by new trains slated to enter service from 2026. This needn’t be extravagant — straightening some sections of track built in the 19th century and doubling some single-track sections could improve speeds and capacity well enough to draw more to regional train travel and away from cars and planes. This would be a degree of investment in the regional network not seen since the introduction of the Express Passenger Train (XPT) fleet in 1982, if not ever. In fact, such upgrades alongside the introduction of tilting trains could allow for a reduction in travel time between Melbourne and Sydney from eleven to six hours.
NSW Labor could learn from its counterpart in Victoria. The Andrews ministry there has achieved significant improvements of both metropolitan and regional service, commissioning new trains and track at an impressive rate.
Labor has shown some promise by committing to the completion of Metro City & Southwest and ramping up railworks to, as they put it, “fix” Sydney’s rail network. If the Minns ministry swallows its pride and commits to Metro West and other projects, it will be able to boast having made New South Wales more connected, and in doing so rejuvenate NSW Labor’s legacy on public transport.