Transport Minister’s ‘mood has changed’ on light rail delivery settlement

Trams from Randwick to Circular Quay are officially on track, as Transport Minister Andrew Constance declared an end to a bitter feud with the consortium delivering Sydney’s light rail.

• ‘Like waiting for royalty’: new light rail milestone
• Sydney to open ‘around the clock’

The State Government has reached a settlement with the consortium delivering Sydney’s light rail, ending a bitter public feud over the multibillion-dollar project.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance announced the $576 million settlement with the builders and operators, Acciona and ALTRAC, bringing the total cost of the project to a staggering $2.7 billion — or $225 million per kilometre.

The light rail linking the CBD to Randwick and Kingsford was originally meant to cost taxpayers $1.6 billion

Mr Constance called the settlement an “important and complex” agreement, that would ensure passenger services between Randwick and Circular Quay would run this year.

NSW Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance announcing the settlement today. Picture: Joel Carrett

“It’s designed to make sure that we reset the relationship in commercial terms with the builders and operators so that it’s done in a way that enables the community to move forward with confidence in relation to this project,

“The settlement agreement has been undertaken to achieve an operation for the people of Sydney from December. That means passenger services from Randwick down George St to Circular Quay by the end of the year.”

Mr Constance said the agreement had seen a $1.1 billion “misrepresentation” claim brought by Acciona in 2018 taken “off the table”, while $1.5 billion in legal claims had been settled after a late-night meeting on Saturday that ran until 2am.

About $129 million of the $576 million is dependent on the project hitting milestones in its delivery timeline, which Mr Constance said “will not be paid” unless those deadlines are met.

Acciona claimed the State Government made misrepresentations about the scale of works involved on the project.

Managing director Bede Noonam told an inquiry in November that seeing the guidelines set by Ausgrid, that Acciona was unaware of until after signing contracts to carry out the works, was a “crap your pants” moment.

He said the company would not have taken on the project had it been aware of the extent of work involved to deal with underground utilities along the line.

On Monday Mr Constance rejected that the settlement represented a loss on the government’s part, saying it was “not willing to tie the taxpayer up in court costs for years and years to come”.

He said Acciona had invested more equity into the project, giving it “greater incentive” to ensure services are delivered on time.

A tram running along Alison Rd, Randwick. Picture: Transport for NSW.

Mr Constance would not be drawn on the total cost of the project, but said “further costs” associated with Transport for NSW would be incurred.

“We won’t know the final cost until we see passengers on the tram services,” he said.

Having last year slammed Acciona’s handling of the project as a “stuff up” and blaming delays on the company understaffing workers, he declared his “mood has changed” because “they’ve picked up the pace”.

The Kingsford leg down Anzac Pde is due in March 2020.