[Greens-Media] FW: MEDIA RELEASE: 'No business case for $8.3 billion North West Rail Link' (Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC)

[Mehreen Faruqi]

Media Release
18.11.14
No business case for $8.3 billion North West Rail Link

NSW Greens MP and Transport Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC, has called Government revelations ('Baird in Sydney Harbour Rail Push' Australian Financial Review 18/11 Page 3) that the $8.3 billion North West Rail Link has no business case irresponsible and unsurprising.

Dr Faruqi said:

"Today Premier Baird has revealed what many have known all along - there is no justification for building the single-decker NWRL nor the second harbour crossing.

"Committing $8.3 billion dollars of public funding to a project that never had a business case and will not integrate with the current Sydney train network is utterly irresponsible.

"This metro-style shuttle has been an ill- conceived project from day one with no analysis, chaos at the Chatswood station changeover and the ripping up of a perfectly good line from Epping to Chatswood.

"It never made any sense makes to build an unintegrated shuttle line and now we know that it is purely based on this government's ideology that prioritises privatisation over effective transport solutions.

"According to the Government, they are set to repeat this folly by building a metro-style second harbour crossing and then further cannibalise and privatise the current public train network.

"Even if completed, the Bankstown metro line will be made up of more than half existing lines, amounting to a ripping up of public infrastructure and gifting it to the private sector leaving hundreds of thousands of people isolated from the main network.

"This Government has a track record of pushing ahead with projects that have no justification and make so sense from a business, transport or environmental perspective.

"There is still time to stop this madness. It's not too late to reverse the decision of ripping up the Epping to Chatswood line and building public transport that actually works for commuters, such as completing the Epping to Parramatta link" Dr Faruqi concluded.

AFR Story: http://www.afr.com/p/national/baird_backs_second_sydney_harbour_BJCtlG54TznKNZ2XX3RKdP

Media contact: Matt Hilton for Mehreen Faruqi 9230 2625 / 0423 106 247