Minister coy on rumoured launch date for Sydney’s light rail
It has been years in the making and has blown the budget but Sydney’s light rail looks set to open within just weeks. But in a fresh blow, a mass power outage saw all trams grind to a halt on Wednesday afternoon.
Central Sydney
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Sydney. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance remains coy on the opening date of Sydney’s new light rail network amid reports it could be operational in just three weeks.
It’s clear there remains a few kinks to iron out, as a power outage brought all trams on the network to a halt this afternoon causing gridlock in the CBD.
One tram was stuck at the intersection of Market St and George St and police had to be called to redirect traffic.
“At approximately 12.50pm today a power failure caused all trams testing on the CBD and South East Light Rail to stop,” a NSW Transport spokeswoman said.
Total gridlock in Sydney CBD caused by trams failure blocking Market St and King st pic.twitter.com/zWCiQKQ4yN
— Nicola Grieve (@nicolagrieve) November 13, 2019
“Police responded immediately and were on site within minutes of the incident and started managing traffic through the intersection to minimise disruption.
“Market St was closed westbound for a short period of time and diversions implemented to clear traffic around the area.
“The tram moved out of the intersection under its own power shortly after 1.30pm.
“The cause of the power issue is being investigated.”
The State Government announced in June the first leg of the $2.7 billion line would open in December, but midway through November there is still no concrete opening day, Mr Constance said.
Media reports on Wednesday suggested the line from Circular Quay to Randwick could open as early as December 7.
That was before today’s breakdown.
But Mr Constance said although testing was now in the “final stages”, the opening date would not be revealed until “we’re satisfied that process is complete”.
It is likely the official date will be confirmed just days before trams open to passengers, as was the case with the Sydney Metro Northwest’s launch in May.
“I understand everyone is really excited to see this great new transport system open, but the main priority at this stage is to make sure we’ve crossed everything off the checklist first,” Mr Constance said.
“We’re still on track to have it open by Christmas, but the main focus at the moment is ensuring everything is operating as it should be before we get customers on board.”
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman toed the minister’s line: “Testing and driver training is still underway and we’re working hard and on track to open the L2 Randwick to CQ in December.
“More information will follow after we have a few more tests completed in coming weeks.”
It comes as day testing on the project’s second leg between Kensington and Kingsford began last week.
That section of the 12.9km network has suffered delays.
Commuters are expected to be able to catch trams from Kingsford by March 2020.