Workers left waiting for bus links to new Sydney airport

The NSW government is assessing fresh options for public transport connections to Sydney’s new international airport, which has been at risk of opening without promised links for workers and airline passengers due to a funding stoush.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen and Roads Minister John Graham were handed options for rapid bus routes to Western Sydney Airport two months ago, a list of sensitive documents held by the state’s transport agency shows.

Western Sydney Airport’s 3.7-kilometre runway will be long enough to handle aircraft as large as the A380 superjumbo.Credit: Brook Mitchell

A freedom-of-information request by the Herald for the documents to be released has been refused on the basis that they are cabinet-in-confidence.

Labor promised during the March election campaign that it would deliver rapid bus links from Campbelltown, Liverpool and Penrith to the new airport and the yet-to-be-built city of Bradfield nearby. It also vowed to buy 80 locally made buses and spend $50 million on turning Fifteenth Avenue in Leppington into a rapid transit corridor.

It put the initial cost of its commitment at $305 million over three years, which is a fraction of Transport for NSW’s previous internal estimates totalling $1.6 billion for the rapid bus links.

In justifying the decision for the documents to be kept secret, Transport for NSW said they contained “options and recommendations” relating to the rapid bus project “intended to be determined by the NSW government in cabinet”.

The documents included “critical infrastructure and services funding options and analysis”, the agency said. “These documents reveal, or tend to reveal a position that the minister intends to take on the matter in cabinet.”

The Herald revealed last year that the new airport at Badgerys Creek, about 45 kilometres from Sydney CBD, is at serious risk of opening in late 2026 without the promised rapid bus links because of major delays to funding from the state and federal governments.

Liverpool Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun said that without the rapid bus links most people from nearby areas who worked at the airport would have to drive to get there. “They are vital, and we need to have this locked in,” he said. “Any of the big corporations that want to open up around the airport need to have access to a workforce.”

Liverpool and other parts of western Sydney will rely on the rapid bus links for public transport because many residents will be too far away from a new $11 billion metro rail line, which will extend from St Marys in 2026 to the airport and Bradfield.

Terry Lee-Williams, a former senior Transport for NSW executive who is now Aurecon’s director of future transport, said the provision of rapid bus links from Penrith, Campbelltown and Liverpool was crucial because the airport would become a major employment hub.

“It needs a 24/7 service to support the 24/7 airport,” he said.

“Bus rapid transit is one of the ways to get [the new transport infrastructure in place] quicker, as long as you do it properly and give it priority. They are lower cost, and you can deliver them relatively quickly.”

A spokesperson for Haylen and Graham said the government was working to ensure that rapid and local bus services would be operating in time for the airport’s opening.

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