By Daniel Lo Surdo and Michael Koziol
The NSW government’s decision to abandon a multibillion-dollar “super deck” over Central Station has been lashed by critics who say it will compromise renewal plans for Australia’s busiest railway station and make permanent the inner-city “dead zone” separating Surry Hills from Ultimo.
The development, proposed by the then-Coalition government in 2022, involved building a giant deck above the regional and intercity rail lines that terminate at Central, and the construction of more than a dozen buildings up to 34 storeys in height – including 850 apartments.
Plans to build a superdeck over rail lines terminating at Central have been scrapped. Credit: NSW government
Labor announced at the weekend it would scrap all work on the project after claiming several independent evaluators found it would be likely to cost $6 billion, with the government on the hook for at least half.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey told The Daily Telegraph it was a “vanity project” which would deliver relatively little housing and “never stacked up” financially, despite more than $130 million already being spent on planning.
Former minister for cities and infrastructure Rob Stokes said cancelling the super deck plan was short-sighted and a wasted opportunity to connect both sides of the CBD.
“You’re left with a mess of an ugly scar of train tracks, and you’ll never be able to join the city together again,” he said. “They want to keep the deck on the Cahill Expressway and they want to delete the deck at Central Station. I would have thought good city-shaping would look at things the opposite way around.”
Then Cities and Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes with Premier Dominic Perrottet at the launch of the Central Station renewal project in August 2022. Credit: Oscar Colman
Stokes accepted the project had not been budgeted, and he was not privy to the modelling behind the $6 billion price tag. But he said the feasibility could always be improved by increasing density above the station and recouping the cost from developers.
The government did not answer questions on Monday about the assumptions underlying the $6 billion costing, nor whether the figure was within a range.
While renewal around Central Station is proceeding, as well as the broader Tech Central precinct, Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said removing the super deck risked the rest of the renewal “withering on the vine”.
“When you start to lose the centrepiece, the whole vision starts to fall apart,” said Forrest, who is a former NSW Labor chief of staff. “It leaves an impact on all of those planning to or who had already invested money in those precincts and areas in good faith, expecting the government was going to honour its commitment.”
A proposed redevelopment for Central Station covers a 24-hectare site at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD.Credit: NSW government
The project had been touted as a measure to connect a “dead zone” occupied by the railway tracks through the installation of new parks, public spaces and transport links. A pedestrian avenue up to 24 metres wide would separate the buildings and allow foot traffic across the precinct.
The former Coalition government acknowledged the project would be a complex engineering feat, and there was significant division among stakeholders about what should be built on the deck.
Atlassian’s $1.4 billion Australian headquarters – still going ahead and due for completion in 2026 next to Central Station – is expected to anchor the new Tech Central precinct. The company was contacted for comment on Monday, as were Business NSW and the City of Sydney council.
Eamon Waterford, chief executive of the Committee for Sydney think tank, said he would not shed a tear for the Central Station deck, which was always going to be “eye-wateringly expensive”.
“On the other hand, doing bold visionary projects costs money,” he said. “This is a government that’s very much focused on meat and potato issues – housing affordability, wages. We are going to have to start doing some visionary projects at some point.”
An alternative plan for the Central Station precinct put forward by architecture firm Bates Smart proposed a large area of green space should be built on the deck over the rail lines, with towers on either side instead.
Managing director Philip Vivian called the decision to abandon the deck “bittersweet”, saying it put “years of planning down the drain” but did open up opportunities for different measures to enhance public space.
“The state government should think about Central Station in terms of improving public amenity and the public good rather than what will make money,” he said.
Vivian said the government contacted him four months ago to discuss his alternative proposal. “It was always known that building buildings over rail was super expensive.”
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