It's been revealed the cost of the Newcastle Light Rail project far outweighs the benefits.
A leaked cabinet report revealed to Fairfax and the ABC shows the decision to cut the rail line at Wickham was made before costing of the light rail project was carried out.
When the costings were carried out the document revealed the 2.7 kilometre track cost benefit is only 70 cents to the dollar and initially the body responsible for funding high-cost infrastructure projects rejected the plan because it benefits ratio was less than one dollar.
The cost also blew out to around $600 million, which is $220 million per kilometre of light rail track.
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp says there were clearly other options on the table, better options, which in the end would've been better for the city.
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"This report also indicates the government would've saved a heck of a lot of money if they'd done a cut and put the heavy rail underground and still opened up all of the city for a lot less money and gotten a much larger revitalisation bang for its buck."
A hypothetical plan to proceed with urban renewal without truncating the rail line had a benefit/cost ratio of around 2.4, meaning each dollar spent would be worth $2.40.
"This government is making the wrong decisions in terms of how they open up and renew the city and their own advice says that, but they choose to ignore it. It's no wonder they're not releasing these reports because they don't want to be called out and found out and they have been," said Tim Crakanthorp.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union has also commented on the revelations today, stating the negative impact they originally believed the project would have on commuters, is now the reality.
"Unfortunately this confirms everything we suspected, but were hoping wasn't true - that the NSW Government's decision to shut the rail line wasn't made with commuters in mind at all," said RTBU NSW Secretary Alex Claassens.
