Promised transport links to new Sydney airport delayed due to funding gap

Sydney’s new airport is at serious risk of opening without crucial public transport connections because of major delays to funding from the state and federal governments for a $1.6 billion project.

Senior officials from the state’s transport agency privately raised concerns several months ago about a lack of progress on promises for rapid bus links to Western Sydney Airport, which is due to open to passengers in four years.

Western Sydney Airport is due to open in 2026.Credit: Brook Mitchell

The state and federal governments have yet to stump up funding despite warnings that it was needed by July this year to avoid the airport opening without three rapid bus links.

Emails and confidential NSW government documents reveal the cost of buying about 100 new double-decker buses and establishing key routes linking Liverpool, Penrith and Campbelltown to the new airport will reach $1.6 billion.

As part of a so-called city deal signed four years ago, the NSW government committed to opening rapid bus links from the three centres to the international airport before the first planes take off in late 2026, and to the new city of Bradfield to be built nearby.

A confidential report by Transport for NSW warns that both the rapid bus connections and a promised $11 billion metro rail link to the airport are needed to “avoid road network congestion”.

Delays to the public transport project will be compounded if the state government’s airport metro line also opens late. Despite the metro being slated to open in time for the new airport, senior government ministers have recently described that target as just an “aspiration”.

Western Sydney seats, including Penrith which was set to be serviced by the rapid bus routes, will be critical in determining the election in March next year.

In an email to Transport for NSW secretary Rob Sharp on May 1 – two weeks before the federal election – a deputy secretary from the agency warned that “there is no federal funding” for the rapid-bus project or an investment decision by the NSW government.

“To put the routes and roads in place we would need an investment decision now,” she wrote in May. “Additional roads are not funded, included in this cost nor in planning phase.”

She detailed a proposal for $100 million “to provide some solution to meet the cities deal”, which would cover business cases and “includes a minimum viable product of a small number of buses to create routes on existing roads”.

Sharp responded by email that an initial $100 million investment was “massive”, and asked for a breakdown of the actual costs.

The rapid-bus connections are part of promises outlined in the western Sydney “city deal” between the state and the Turnbull government signed in 2018.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said the state government had now failed to deliver on commitments in its own city deal for essential public transport services to the new airport by 2026.

Construction under way on the passenger terminal at Western Sydney Airport.Credit: Brook Mitchell

“It’s the same story with this 12-year-old government – big promises and no delivery,” he said. “This was a deal that the government was proud to announce at the time, but now they are quietly walking away from it.”

Transport and Western Sydney Minister David Elliott said both the NSW and federal governments had a “shared objective” for necessary transport infrastructure to be in place when the new airport opened.

“I have requested a meeting with federal Transport Minister Catherine King to discuss funding for the state’s major transport infrastructure projects,” he said.

A spokeswoman for King said questions about the rapid bus links were a matter for the NSW government, which had committed to establishing the services before the airport opens in the Western Sydney city deal.

However, the emails by Transport for NSW senior officials in May say the “agreed funding position” was that the federal government was to provide 80 per cent of the money, and the state the rest.

In an internal report in March this year, Transport for NSW warned that funding was required by July to meet the “city deal commitment for rapid bus services to be operational by 2026 in time for the opening of the airport”.

It warned there were “currently no bus services in the Aerotropolis core” – a large area where Bradfield city will be built – and outlined the “reputational risk” for the NSW government from limited public transport options for the growth areas near the new airport.

A spokesman for Transport for NSW said that the metro rail line would open at the same time as the new airport, and that the state and federal governments were committed to providing “supporting infrastructure”.

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