The problems with the new Korean-made fleet of trains were flagged last year
The state government under former Premier Gladys Berejiklian were told early last year of potential delays to Sydney’s new intercity trains.
NSW
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Senior officials were warned as early as February last year that the new intercity trains would be delayed until at least May 2021.
The initial schedule for a late 2019 rollout was deemed “optimistic” and the Korean manufacturer was described as having a culture which “consistently over-promised and underdelivered”.
It comes amid claims from state Labor that the costs relating to the new intercity trains – which remain delayed amid a litany of problems – have blown out to $3.3bn.
That would mean the project is almost a billion dollars more expensive than the original estimate.
Documents released to parliament reveal the Korean facility the trains were made at did not have the capacity to build rail cars fast enough to meet schedules, and the manufacturer had a culture that “consistently over-promised and underdelivered”.
The New Intercity Fleet (NIF) – which was too wide to fit through tunnels in the Blue Mountains and is still not in service amid an industrial dispute – was supposed to be in service by late 2019.
Taking the first journey on the new trains in May, former Transport Minister Andrew Constance gave an assurance that the fleet would be carrying passengers “in a couple of weeks”.
He blamed Covid for the delays, but internal government documents indicate that bureaucrats were warned about an impending delay as early as February 2020, before the true impacts of the pandemic began to be felt.
A revised delivery schedule for the project, completed in June 2019, pushed the delivery of the first train out by 15 months. The initial schedule for a late 2019 rollout was deemed “optimistic”.
Labor claimed that government data showed $3.3bn worth of contracts was related to the NIF project, which was originally slated to cost $2.3bn.
The cost of the project was later revised up to $2.8bn.
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the “capital budget” for the fleet remained at $2.8bn.
This “includes cost of carriages, power supply upgrades, network enabling work and the construction of the new maintenance facility at Kangy Angy,” she said.
She said the last train in Tranche 1 was due for provisional acceptance on December 17.
Labor Leader Chris Minns has seized on the documents as a further reason to build transport infrastructure in NSW. “The NSW Liberals’ program of offshored transport projects has seen major cost blowouts, production delays and defects,” he said.
“The top six public transport projects that have been built overseas have suffered cost blowouts of between 40 and 50 per cent.”
A Transport for NSW brief for the incoming deputy secretary, dated February 2020, warned that the manufacturer was a “new market entrant and unfamiliar with Australian processes”, posing a “risk” that they would need to be closely steered during the delivery phase.
Another challenge identified was that there was “no Sydney-based retrofit centre” to fix or complete the NIF trains onshore. The NIF fleet has been beset by problems since its arrival. A confidential report revealed last month found the doors on the trains “would fail” and could break if opened while the train was moving.
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