$2 billion announced for stage two of Parramatta Light Rail to Sydney Olympic Park revealed

The future of the second stage of the Parramatta Light Rail has been locked in with more than $2 billion to be tipped into it over the next five years.

Major construction work is set to finally begin on the second stage of the Parramatta Light Rail, with $2 billion in funding to be announced for the new tram line connecting the Parramatta CBD with Sydney Olympic Park.

The state budget later this month will contain a $73 million package to kick start the final business case for the 14-stop, 12-kilometre extension, with a further $2 billion to be set aside and rolled out over the next five years on building the new megaproject.

The $2 billion comes on top of $800 million already pumped into the planning of the route and building the first of two new bridges across the Parramatta River.

The latest stage will adjoin the first part of the light rail at the Parramatta CBD, before crossing the Parramatta River and travelling through Rydalmere, Melrose Park and Wentworth Point.

Sydney Olympic Park resident Ivy Chung, with her baby boy Kye, said the new light rail would make getting to the Parramatta CBD easier. Picture: Richard Dobson

The second stage is expected to cost more than $3.9b with construction to take almost a decade, with a forecast opening date of 2032.

Once finished, the new light rail will link Sydney Olympic Park to the Parramatta CBD with a 37-minute trip.

Planning documents show two extra stations at Camellia East and at Grand Parade in Sydney Olympic Park could be added later during construction.

The funding guarantees the project’s future after years of uncertainty, as cost blowouts and construction delays strike other major transport infrastructure in the NSW pipeline.

The new multi-billion-dollar second stage of the Parramatta Light Rail will run from the Parramatta CBD through Camellia, Melrose Park and Wentworth Point on the way to Sydney Olympic Park.

That includes the $25 billion Metro West linking Parramatta to the Sydney CBD, which was late last year given a revised opening date of 2032 by the Minns Government, two years behind initial forecasts.

The announcement on stage two comes as testing forges ahead on the first stage linking the Parramatta CBD to Carlingford, with transport boffins targeting an opening before the end of August.

Heba Kassoua with her baby boy Gaber, said getting to sporting matches at Accor Stadium would be a highlight of the new rail for her. Picture: Richard Dobson

The $3.9 billion price tag for the newest light rail outstrips both stage one of the Parramatta line ($2.875 billion) and the Sydney city and southeast light rail ($3.1 billion).

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said by 2041 280,000 residents are expected to live along the stage two rail alignment.

“This investment will get shovels in the ground and construction started before the end of this parliamentary term. Just as we promised,” she said.

“(Those 280,000 residents) need frequent and reliable public transport services, and we’ll deliver it.”

Premier Chris Minns said western Sydney residents had “moved into the area with the promise of infrastructure that never arrived”.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen. Picture: Richard Dobson

“We’re getting on with the job and building this essential project that people who live in the fast growing suburbs of Western Sydney were promised,” he said.

North Parramatta resident Heba Kassoua, an avid sports fan, welcomed a new link to the Sydney Olympic Park precinct.

She said locals had been waiting “for so long” for the first and second stages of the light rail.

“We’re huge soccer fans and it’s a bit of a pain every time we go to watch the Matildas or Socceroos – we were there at the world cup on the night the trains broke down, I was heavily pregnant, and it took us two hours to get home, so having it there is going to be so convenient when we go to watch soccer or any sports,” she said.

The entire Parramatta Light Rail network.

Ivy Chung and her young family live at Sydney Olympic Park, where they usually jump on the train to get to Parramatta.

She said the light rail, with a newborn baby, would be an easier option than hoisting prams up and down stairs and escalators at train stations.

“We hardly drive to Parramatta, we usually catch the train … I have an eight-month-old baby now, so it’ll make a lot more convenient,” she said.

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Originally published as $2 billion announced for stage two of Parramatta Light Rail to Sydney Olympic Park revealed