Fact check: Did NSW Labor fail to deliver 'a single railway line'?

Updated

The New South Wales Coalition Government has attacked Labor's record on railway infrastructure.

According to Premier Mike Baird, during Labor's time in office from 1995 to 2011, a dozen new railway lines were announced, but none delivered.

The claim: NSW Premier Mike Baird says Labor did not deliver a single railway line when in government.

NSW Premier Mike Baird says Labor did not deliver a single railway line when in government. The verdict: Mr Baird's claim ignores projects that were started and finished under the previous government like the Epping to Chatswood line and the Sydney airport line. While Labor promised a lot of railways that were never built, Mr Baird's claim that Labor "did not deliver a single railway line" is overstated.

"They had six transport ministers, they had nine transport plans, they announced twelve railways and how many did they deliver? Absolutely none. They did not deliver a single railway line, and that's what we saw time in and time out under Labor," Mr Baird said on March 1, 2015.

ABC Fact Check investigates Mr Baird's claim that Labor in government did not deliver "a single railway line".

Promises, promises

Fact Check asked the NSW Premier's office for the basis of Mr Baird's claim.

A spokesman referred to a list described as "Labor's 12 promised rail lines" that was provided by the office of NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian.

Ms Berejiklian made a similar claim to Mr Baird's on February 20 when she said: "Labor in government announced 12 rail lines and delivered half of one."

The Coalition's list includes:

The Bondi Beach rail link

A high speed rail link to Newcastle and the Central Coast

A Hurstville to Strathfield rail link

A high speed rail link from Sutherland to Wollongong

The Parramatta to Chatswood rail link

The North West heavy rail line

The South West rail link

A new CBD harbour crossing

The North West Metro

The CBD to Rozelle Metro

The West Metro

The Western Express

The first six were contained in a 1998 NSW Labor Government report, Action for Transport 2010.

The others are from various transport plans released throughout the life of the last Labor government: the 2005 Metropolitan Rail Expansion Program; the 2008 State Infrastructure Strategy 2006-16; and the Metropolitan Transport Plan, Connecting the City of Cities, 2010.

Labor's track record

The previous Labor government is not the first to be attacked for failing to deliver. The transport minister under the Liberal National governments of Nick Greiner and John Fahey from 1988 to 1995 was Bruce Baird, the father of Mike Baird. He was also attacked by then opposition leader Bob Carr for not delivering promised transport infrastructure.

Successive NSW Labor premiers including Mr Carr (1995-2005), Morris Iemma (2005-2008), Nathan Rees (2008-2009) and Kristina Keneally (2009-2011) and their transport ministers also came under criticism for failing to deliver promised transport infrastructure.

During the 2011 state election campaign, then shadow treasurer Mike Baird said: "Labor has repeatedly promised infrastructure but failed to deliver."

Carl Scully, Labor's NSW transport minister between 1997 and 2003, conceded his government failed to build several railways it announced. "Government is tough, and sometimes commitments are not delivered," Mr Scully told Fact Check.

But Mr Scully also defended Labor's record.

"In office Labor delivered the $2.3 billion Epping to Chatswood line, the $700 million airport line and a light rail line at a cost of between $70 million and $80 million".

Opposition transport spokeswoman Penny Sharpe told Fact Check Mr Baird's claim didn't stack up.

"While the Baird Government has made many claims about rail lines, the facts do not support them," she said.

Ms Sharpe said the previous Labor government opened four heavy rail lines: Cumberland, Olympic Park, airport and Epping to Chatswood, and commenced the construction of the South West Rail Link.

Parramatta to Chatswood

Construction began on a rail line between Epping in Sydney's north-west and Chatswood on the North Shore in late 2002, and the line was opened in early 2009 with new stations at Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde.

According to the 2001-02 NSW state budget, the line was intended to link Parramatta in Sydney's west, to Chatswood, via Epping, but only the Epping to Chatswood section was completed.

The Parramatta to Epping section remained in limbo until 2010 when the Gillard federal Labor government promised to help revive the line during a closely fought federal election campaign.

But the plan was effectively shelved in 2013 when the then federal transport and infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese blamed the NSW Coalition government for rejecting a funding offer.

The Premier's spokesman says Mr Baird is not denying the existence of the Epping to Chatswood line, but isn't counting it because the longer line from Parramatta to Chatswood via Epping announced in 1998 was never built. Ms Berejiklian however counts it as a "half" a line.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Watch John Barron present the facts (ABC News)

South West rail

Construction of the South West rail link from Glenfield to Leppington, with new stations at Edmondson Park and Leppington, got under way in August 2009 under Labor. It opened in February 2015, almost four years after NSW Labor left power.

The airport line

As well as those listed by the Coalition, the Action for Transport 2010 report includes the railway line linking Sydney's Kingsford-Smith airport to Central railway station, which was already under construction when the report was released in 1998.

The contract to build the airport line with new stations at Green Square, Mascot, Domestic Terminal and International Terminal was signed under the Fahey Liberal-National Government in early 1995 and came into effect three months after Labor was elected.

The airport line opened in 2000, during Labor's second term, in time for the Sydney Olympic games.

Ms Berejiklian's spokesman says the airport line was excluded from the list, "on the basis that the former Liberal Fahey Government started the project, and the fact that the list is the railway lines that Labor announced/promised".

Light rail

Work on the light rail line linking Sydney's Central railway station to Wentworth Park at Glebe began in January 1996, under Labor and opened in 1997. An extension to Lilyfield opened in 2000, a year earlier than promised in the Action for Transport 2010 report.

A further extension of the light rail from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill was announced by Labor in early 2010 at an expected cost of $500 million, and the extension was opened in 2014 under the Coalition.

A spokesman for the NSW Premier says Mr Baird's comment related only to heavy rail, not light rail. Yet when Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian made a similar attack on Labor's record, she did include light rail, saying, "Labor talked a lot about the inner west light rail extension too, another project built and opened by the Baird Government earlier last year after Labor couldn't deliver".

Cumberland and Olympic Park

Another two lines opened during Labor's term in office, the Cumberland line in 1996 and the Olympic Park line in 1998. They were both announced and partially built under the previous Coalition government.

Terminated trains

A significant number of rail projects announced by NSW Labor in government were not delivered during Labor's time in office.

The majority were scrapped, including:

The high speed rail to Newcastle

The high speed rail to Wollongong

Hurstville to Strathfield

The North West heavy rail

The verdict

The NSW Government's list of twelve lines promised by Labor omits the airport line because the contract was signed under the Coalition, even though it was entirely built under Labor.

It also doesn't count the Epping to Chatswood line at all because it wasn't the full Parramatta to Chatswood line first announced by Labor. It ignores the Olympic Park and Cumberland lines which were completed under Labor after being announced and partially built under the Coalition. And the list includes the South West rail link, because even though it was announced and commenced under Labor, it was completed under the Coalition.

The Premier's office also says he isn't referring to the light rail from Central to Lilyfield which was announced and delivered by Labor, because it's not heavy rail.

But none of these distinctions are made clear in the Premier's claim that Labor "did not deliver a single railway line". Mr Baird's claim is overstated.



Sources

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, rail-transport, liberals, nsw

First posted