A ONE-year delay to Sydney’s troubled light rail project to the eastern suburbs is “unacceptable” and the contractor needs to “accelerate”, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance has said.

Light rail consortium ALTRAC has reportedly told the state government trams won’t be operating until March 2020.

“Unfortunately, in this case, we have one subcontractor who is playing the game and we are not interested in their games, we are interested in their work and they need to get on with it,” Mr Constance told ABC radio on Thursday.

“We want to see it delivered in 2019 as per the project deed. It is vital that ALTRAC accelerate and get on with their program. We have businesses and residents being hurt by their actions and inactions,” he later told 2GB.

Last week, Premier Gladys Berejiklian insisted it was her “intention” to have the light rail running some time in 2019, despite a messy contractual dispute and looming court battle.

A Spanish subcontractor responsible for building the project claims Transport for NSW engaged in “misleading or deceptive conduct” in relation to the contract for the 12km network from Circular Quay to Kingsford and Randwick.

In its statement of claim filed last Friday in the NSW Supreme Court, company Acciona Infrastructure Australia is seeking more than $1.1 billion for the loss and damage it says it has suffered.

The light rail, originally budgeted to cost $1.6 billion before a $500 million blowout, was to be completed in 2018 before that deadline was pushed back to 2019.

The premier last week maintained the project was on track.

“People want to see the job completed on time and on budget — that’s my intention.”

However, Mr Constance was less confident about the project’s completion date, saying while some zones were up to nine months behind schedule, the government did not know what the final completion date was as it was in the hands of ALTRAC.

— AAP