Sydney light rail's finish date now 2020, a year later than planned

Construction of Sydney's troubled $2.1 billion light rail project will not be completed until March 2020, a year later than promised.

Delays to construction have infuriated business owners and residents along the 12-kilometre route of the line from Circular Quay to Randwick and Kensington, and the latest timetable for completion has raised concerns some retailers whose earnings have slumped will not survive the extended period.

Repeated delays to construction of the light rail line on George Street in Sydney's CBD have infuriated businesses.Credit: Jessica Hromas

The ALTRAC consortium charged with delivering and operating the line has told the government that it is now working towards a completion date of March 2020. Construction began in late 2015 and was originally due to be finished in March next year, the time of the next state election.

It follows the Spanish company building the line, Acciona, launching a $1.1 billion lawsuit last week against the state's lead transport agency for “misleading or deceptive conduct” in the lead-up to it signing a contract in 2014 to design and build the project.

The sub-contractor claims Transport for NSW led it to believe power company Ausgrid had agreed to a plan to deal with utilities under the route of the line when it had not.

Until now, the state government has repeatedly declined to say when its signature project would be finished, and last month Transport Minister Andrew Constance accused the contractor of being unwilling to provide a “meaningful timeline” for completion of the project.

Mr Constance has chided Acciona for being on a “go-slow” and raised concerns about the “poor quality” of its work, “numerous site safety incidents” and “ever-dwindling numbers of workers”.

Acciona has denied suggestions it is to blame for delays or a blowout in the cost of the project.

City of Sydney councillor Angela Vithoulkas, whose family owns a cafe on George Street, said the government and contractors appeared to be preparing businesses for the project taking even longer than March 2020 to be completed.

“I am sick of hearing Constance saying he is an angry customer. If he is an angry customer, what are we?” she said.

Cr Vithoulkas said businesses that had experienced a plunge in revenue due to disruption from construction of the line would struggle to stay afloat until 2020. “There are so many who are not able to hold out that long,” she said.

While the laying of tracks has been completed in nine of 31 zones, civil construction has yet to be finished in any of the zones along the entire route. The original schedule was for all of the major civil construction, which includes poles and footpaths, to be finished this month.

NSW Labor deputy leader Michael Daley said the public did not want to see the government and contractor fighting, and expected Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Mr Constance to show leadership and skill to get the project back on track.

“The blame game isn’t going to help commuters, drivers and to stop businesses along the route from going broke,” he said.