It was the strategy on which the hopes and dreams of the inner west would be projected, and on which seemingly no expense was spared.

But the vast cost of developing a palatable plan to redevelop Parramatta Road – including almost $2 million for public relations consultants – has amounted to far less than envisioned, with the government husbanding key material to itself.

Tree-lined: An artist's impression of the new Parramatta Road.

New documents reveal the government chose not release a plan to improve public transport along the Parramatta Road corridor, which it stripped out of the strategy it put to the public late last year.

The revitalisation of the maligned transport corridor, billed as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to finally fix one of Sydney's most-hated roads", was announced in 2013 to coincide with the WestConnex motorway.