New airport flyers face long wait for metro train line’s opening due to dispute

A multibillion-dollar metro rail line to Sydney’s new international airport is at risk of further delays due to an inability to break a stalemate in a long-running dispute between contractors and the state government.

Despite previously declaring it would become clear by now whether the dispute would be resolved through negotiation or fought out in court, the government remains in a stand-off with the private consortium contracted to build and operate the $12 billion-plus rail line.

Two years after the dispute erupted behind closed doors, it threatens to delay the opening of the 23-kilometre metro line to Western Sydney International Airport until well into 2028, as well as clouding any future multibillion-dollar extensions of it north or south.

The rail line was originally meant to open when passenger flights started at Western Sydney Airport last month. The delay to the line’s opening has forced the government to put on free buses between the new airport and St Marys, where passengers can switch to Sydney Trains services.

Coalition transport spokesperson Natalie Ward said the government needed to come clean on when the project would open, the cost of the delays and whether it would impact future extensions. “The government set another deadline, and the government has missed it,” she said.

“They chose to change the scope of a multibillion-dollar project mid-delivery, and now commuters and taxpayers are wearing the delays and extra costs.”

In late August, Transport Minister John Graham said it would become clear over the following two months whether the dispute would be resolved through negotiation, in which case the government would be able to confirm an opening date. If the negotiations failed, he said the courts would arbitrate.

Graham said on Thursday that Sydney Metro was continuing to work through the commercial issues with the consortium in relation to the project.

“We want to open this project as soon as possible, but my direction to Sydney Metro is to protect taxpayer money,” he said.

He did not respond to specific questions about the negotiations.

The protracted dispute with the consortium led by Italian engineering company Webuild, which is also constructing the troubled Snowy 2.0 hydro scheme, is over delays, scope creep and disruptions.

Martin Locke, an adjunct professor at Sydney University’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, doubts the dispute with the consortium known as Parklife Metro will end up in court.

“If you went through the courts it would take years, and nobody would want to go down that path,” the former investment banker and infrastructure adviser said.

Locke said the dispute had ramifications for any extension of the airport metro line because the original deal for that project would likely include an agreement with the Parklife Metro consortium to extend it based on a committed price.

“You have limited alternatives, if you want to extend, because they are the incumbent party,” he said.

“Under the current scenario, if they are having difficulty reaching an agreement in terms of the re-pricing of the initial line, it would potentially undermine the certainty that Parklife Metro brings around the costing of the future extensions.”

The government is due to consider final business cases for a southern and northern extension of the Western Sydney Airport metro line, as well as the proposed extension of the heavy rail line westwards from Leppington. Last year the Herald revealed the dispute risked blowing out the project’s cost by up to $2.2 billion.

The government later confirmed that legal claims made by the private consortium might increase the airport rail line’s eventual cost by $1 billion-plus, to more than $12 billion.

Confidential Sydney Metro documents reveal bureaucrats warned in January of an “elevated” risk to the latest targeted completion date of late December next year, raising the prospect of it slipping into 2028 and extending the delay in opening it to about 18 months.

Sydney Metro executives also told budget estimates early this year that the outcome of the negotiations with the consortium will “clearly impact the target date for opening” the rail line.