Who will build the North West Rail Link? An EcoTransit Sydney Community Forum, 6 March 2011 at 7pm

In the lead up to the NSW state election held on 26 March 2011, EcoTransit Sydney organised a community forum on 6 March 2011 at 7pm at the Pennant Hills Community Centre. The forum was entitled: "Who will build the North West Rail Link? An EcoTransit Community Forum"

Prior to the forum, invitations were extended to the transport spokespeople for the Liberal Party, The Greens and the Labor Party.

The invited speakers were advised that the forum's focus would be the question: Who will build the North West Rail Link?, with each participant being given an opportunity to present their party's policies for expanding rail services in North West Sydney. EcoTransit Sydney was particularly interested in any detail they could provide on the role, scope and construction schedule, if any, envisaged for the North West Rail Link.

Ms Gladys Berejiklian (The Shadow Minister for Transport), Ms Cate Faehrmann (Greens Transport Spokesperson) were able to accept their invitations. Regrettably, the Minister for Transport, Mr John Robertson, was unable to attend and despite repeated requests, NSW Labor declined to send a representative.

Also in attendence were Mr Gavin Gatenby (EcoTransit Sydney) and Dr Michelle Zeibots (Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney).

The forum was moderated by Mr Andrew West, Senior Reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rail Project Costs

One of the key questions raised at the forum is why rail projects in NSW have become so expensive in recent years? Particularly when compared with projects in other Australian states and countries.

By way of comparison, EcoTransit Sydney prepared a brief fact sheet showing the per kilometre cost of local and overseas rail tunnel projects. The fact sheet is available here.