Parramatta light rail struggles to entice commuters in months after opening

Parramatta’s light rail will need to more than triple its daily passenger tally to meet its target, as the NSW government seeks federal support to overcome a major funding shortfall and extend the line to Olympic Park.

Patronage on the first section of the line was weak in the first two full months of operation.

Preliminary data reveals the L4 Westmead and Carlingford line averaged 8750 trips a day in February despite schools reopening and people returning to work from holidays. Trips for the month totalled 240,280 for the line running through the heart of the Parramatta CBD.

The first stage of Parramatta’s light rail line opened just before Christmas.Credit: Rhett Wyman

After a delayed opening on December 20, the 12-kilometre line averaged 7015 trips daily in January, a quiet period for public transport patronage due to holidays. The month’s total was 210,370 trips.

Trip numbers will need to be boosted significantly to reach Transport for NSW’s forecast for daily patronage of about 28,000 by next year.

Transport for NSW estimated two years ago that the planned 10-kilometre extension between Camellia and Sydney Olympic Park would cost $3.9 billion. The first stage blew out by $475 million in 2022 to $2.9 billion.

The state government has reserved $2.1 billion for the second stage. Senior NSW transport officials confirmed they are in talks with the Albanese government about the “balance of the funding” for the project.

NSW Coalition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said federal funding was typically used to deliver new road and rail projects that had national benefits, while public transport funding was a state responsibility.

“Chris Minns confidently pledged to deliver the project. Now he’s scrambling for federal dollars to cover the shortfall,” she said. “Federal investment in NSW would be welcome, but understand every dollar used to save Chris Minns is a dollar not spent on much-needed new road and rail projects.”

Transport Minister John Graham said federal funding for projects in NSW was always welcome, and communities in western Sydney deserved public transport services on par with those in other parts of the city.

“The Liberals re-announced stage two of the project 15 times without a single shovel ever hitting the ground, leaving families in one of the densest areas of Australia without access to public transport,” he said.

“We committed to beginning construction on stage two within our first term of government, and we have the funding in place to deliver on that promise.”

A spokesperson for federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King did not directly answer questions about funding for the light rail project, but said the federal government worked closely with NSW on priority projects to support the growth of western Sydney.

“We will continue to work with all levels of government to deliver the highest priority transport infrastructure projects,” she said.

As part of plans to stage the project, construction is under way on a bridge over the Parramatta River between Melrose Park and Wentworth Point. Transport for NSW expects to complete an updated business case for the second stage later this year.

Sydney University senior transport lecturer Geoffrey Clifton said patronage on the first stage was “far from being where we would want it to be”.

However, he said the line was in a ramp-up phase as people used it initially to decide whether to make it part of their daily commute.

“Patronage forecasts for the first couple of years of a project are notoriously unreliable. Clearly the Parramatta light rail is going to be slow in terms of patronage ramping up,” he said.

“The government has plans to build a lot more housing. As the population grows in the catchment area, it will be much more useful.”

Transport for NSW said there were “encouraging numbers”, citing a daily average of nearly 9000 boardings in February, almost 25 per cent above the January figure.

The state government last year committed to pressing ahead with the second stage of the line, but declined to put a price tag or completion date on the project.

However, an environmental assessment has previously revealed Transport for NSW expects it to take until 2031 before the second stage opens to passengers.

At the initial announcement in 2017, the then Coalition government said it hoped to start construction before 2020.

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