Off again, on again, the CBD Metro is off again - well, nearly

IN THE clearest sign that the NSW Government will dump the $5.3 billion underground CBD Metro, the Premier revealed yesterday that she was yet to make a decision on the project.

Kristina Keneally said the Metro Authority had stopped buying land around Darling Street, Rozelle, where the seven-kilometre line from Central is supposed to terminate. ''The NSW Government has stopped the acquisition of properties for the Sydney metro in the Rozelle area - until the NSW Government makes a final decision shortly on the project,'' read a statement from her office. The decision would be announced next month, it said.

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The statement contradicts repeated comments by her predecessor, Nathan Rees, the Minister for Transport, David Campbell, and the Metro Authority that the project will proceed, with only the extensions to be finalised.

The comments represent a stunning about-face for the Government, which has insisted the metro will go ahead according to a design revealed in 2008.

As recently as November, Mr Campbell's office, in an email to the Herald, said: ''The NSW Government is delivering the Sydney metro. Stage 1, from Central to Rozelle, is fully funded and under way.'' When the director-general of Transport and Infrastructure, Les Wielinga, appeared to equivocate over the future of the metro during an estimates committee hearing late last year, the Government rushed out a statement clarifying its position as solidly behind the project. Now the Government appears to be following the agenda set by the Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, who yesterday reiterated his call to axe the line to Rozelle and reallocate the money to the south-west and north-west heavy rail links.

Ms Keneally said the Government was ''committed to a metro network for Sydney'' but government sources said this probably meant building a west metro from Westmead to the city terminating at Barangaroo on the western side of the city.

One option involves dumping two expensive tunnels - Barangaroo to Rozelle via Pyrmont and Westmead to Strathfield - and building the west metro above ground alongside the M4 to Westmead.

The architect of the proposal, urban planner Garry Glazebrook, who is a consultant to the independent public inquiry into transport backed by the Herald, estimates this would save $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion for more pressing projects.