The New South Wales government talked up the Sydney light rail project before technical difficulties were fully known, an internal report says.

Screenshots of a 2016 review by Transport for NSW experts entitled Lessons for Rail, released by Labor leader Luke Foley’s office on Sunday, show changes to the design of the $2.1bn project triggered delays and hefty costs due to “onerous” contract arrangements.

The report said underground “realities” – utilities pipes and cables, and drainage – weren’t fully understood as the government promoted the project.

The report warned the project would be blamed or delayed when it failed to meet “unrealistic expectations”.

But the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, who said she had not seen the leaked report, is pushing for the light rail to be finished a year early.

“Every major project has its challenges”, and her government was “pedal to the metal” to bring the project’s completion date forward to 2019.



“The end date we have is March 2020. I want to see that come forward to next year,” she said.

The report comes with the government already locked in a NSW supreme court battle against Spanish subcontractor Acciona, which wanted an extra $1.2bn, saying it had been misled over the complexity of the project.

In April the transport minister, Andrew Constance, was told by the consortium building the light rail that construction was a year behind schedule.

A month later a $4m lawsuit was launched by a contractor working on the project which accused the government of breaching contract and misleading behaviour.



Profile What is Acciona? Show The company behind Sydney's $2.1bn light rail Acciona is a relative newcomer to the Australian construction scene, opening an office here in 2002. But it is a major force in Europe and traces its roots back to 1862 when it built its first project in Spain. The company employees 32,000 professionals in 60 countries and has 1,000-odd in its Sydney office. Acciona has been repositioning itself in recent years as a leader in sustainable development, which its website says involves “strong support for social progress, environmental balance and economic growth.” As well as infrastructure and construction, it has a major business in renewable energy and more recently has moved into water utilities, such as desalination plants and pipelines. In Australia the light rail project is Acciona’s biggest, valued at $2.1bn. It has just completed the Legacy Way tunnels in Brisbane and is involved in the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing in Queensland, the Pacific Highway upgrade between Warrell Creek and Nambucca Heads, and the 1.5km long bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood. It has several teams working on bids in QLD, NSW, VIC and WA. Acciona Agua was part of the consortium that built and now operates the Adelaide desalination plant and the Mundaring water treatment plant near Perth. It is building water treatment plants on the Sunshine Coast and Tasmania. Acciona is also big in wind power. Current projects include a $258m 429GW hour a year wind turbine plant at Mount Gellibrand in Victoria, scheduled for commissioning in April. It has also built windfarms at Cathedral Rocks near Port Lincoln in South Australia; Gunning near Canberra and another near Ballarat. Transport projects include subsidiary Coleman Rail’s $551.7m contract to upgrade Victoria’s Ballarat rail line and another $558m contract to remove level crossings on the Frankston rail line. Internationally it can boast some high profile projects including the Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong completed in 1998, the Gare do Oriente in Lisbon completed in 1998 and the federal chancellery in Berlin, completed in 2001. In 2017 the company reported an ordinary net profit of €233m, up 59.8% on the previous year.





The leaked report says numerous promises were made to consult with stakeholders but no time was actually set aside because the design process was “severely limited” by contracts and a “punitive modifications system”.



Foley told reporters in Sydney the premier’s claims didn’t stack up.



“This is the most poorly delivered infrastructure project in the history of NSW.”



There was “no end in sight” for the hundreds of small businesses and the members of the public affected by the construction, Foley said.



Berejiklian said the impact on small business was what she “felt worst about” but she still backs the light rail.



“I’m also confident when we have the system up and running it’ll be a major, major boost for people moving around and getting from one point of the city to another,” she said.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report