THERE is one scene that sums up the increasing debacle which is Sydney’s multi-billion dollar new tram system. It can be found in a quiet backstreet away from the hubbub of the city’s CBD.
Devonshire Street in Surry Hills, flanked by housing commission flats and historic terraces, was once little more than a residential thoroughfare. Now it’s a construction zone.
Almost its entire length is blocked off for building of the light rail project that will eventually connect the train-deprived eastern suburbs to the city’s heart.
But it shouldn’t be out of bounds at all. Because the work should have been completed by now, ready for the first tram to carry passengers in exactly one year’s time — next April.
Yet, at Devonshire St’s highest point, track hasn’t even been installed. What there is of the uncompleted tram tracks simply stop in the middle of the road. It’s a tram line to nowhere.
Of the 24km of line that needs to be installed, just 63 per cent is in place.
CATASTROPHIC FAILURE
Angela Vithoulkas, a City of Sydney councillor and small business owner whose cafe has been directly affected by the light rail works is livid.
Ms Vithoulkas told news.com.au the construction work has been a “horror story” and a “blame game” is underway between the government and the builders.
“They’re already two years behind schedule in my (area) and when people ask me when it will be finished I have one reply: ‘never’,” she said.
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley, who has always been opposed to the light rail extension, said the project was now a “catastrophic failure”.
Without the tracks, the overhead wires can’t be strung or the stops built, let alone the trams be tested.
COURT BATTLE
“The infrastructure was supposed to have been finished in March to give them a year to do testing and they keep saying it will be delivered on time but I find it difficult to believe,” Ms Vithoulkas said.
A simmering feud between Spanish construction giant Acciona and the state government has now exploded into open warfare.
On Saturday, The Australian reported that Acciona was demanding an extra $1.2 billion to complete the tram line claiming it was misled on the complexity of moving underground utilities.
That’s on top of a $500 million budget blow out which could see the cost of line doubled from original estimates.
The pair are set to face off in court on Friday.
Acciona referred news.com.au’s questions to ALTRAC Light Rail, the consortium building the tram system, of which Acciona is the construction partner.
A spokeswoman told news.com.au 15km of track had been completed but the construction delays were unavoidable.
“We’ve been upfront about the fact work in many construction zones is taking longer than we anticipated because of challenges including from the unknown utilities discovered across all zones as well as design issues.
“We’ve found more than 1600 unknown services and despite these challenges, we’ve now completed 80 per cent of the utility work across the project.”
The firm would not commit to the April 2019 opening date: “Once we near completion we can talk with more certainty about timeline.”
Transport for NSW (TfNSW) told news.com.au: “We expect ALTRAC Light Rail to deliver light rail services in 2019.”
‘NOT SEEN A WORKER FOR MONTHS’
But note the subtle language change. There is no talk of a deadline of April 2019, just “2019” which could see services beginning up to eight months late.
NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is talking tough when it comes to Acciona.
“We’re not going to get fleeced by anyone ... we’re an angry customer at this point in time.”
The Government has maintained that the build was always going to be complex and the contractors were well aware of that when they signed on the dotted line.
In February, it said it was considering fining ALTRAC $500,000 for every day the light rail system overran its opening date.
Neither ALTRAC nor TfNSW would comment on cost overruns or compensation as they were “commercial-in-confidence” matters.
“They’ve destroyed three Christmases for my business and now it looks like they will destroy a fourth. I haven’t seen a worker for months,” said Ms Vithoulkas, whose cafe fronts George St.
Now cordoned off, the street was one of the CBD’s busiest and most congested.
There are accusations that construction work has slowed on the project. By one estimate as many people are building Sydney’s light rail as Newcastle’s system which is four times smaller.
DEMANDS UNJUSTIFIED
Ms Vithoulkas in now set to contest the next state election under the banner of the Small Business Matters Party. She said the light rail debacle and the lack of help for businesses has made her take the fight to Macquarie St, where the NSW Parliament is based.
“(We’re) not against progress, what we’re against is having homes compulsorily acquired and people being ripped off. People have either been ignored or placated but essentially nothing has been done, it’s a horror story,” she said.
“(People) are barricaded in on their doorstep. In Kensington, they live in conditions similar to Long Bay Jail with twelve metre high floodlights above them the SCG would be jealous off.”
Labor’s Mr Foley laid the blame squarely at NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
“She tells the people of NSW that management of transport is what she is good at. I would hate to see what she’s not so good at,” he said on the weekend.
On Monday, Ms Berejiklian said the demands for more cash were “completely unjustified.”
“We will not be held to ransom and we will not be forced to do anything that is not in the best interest of the taxpayer.”
Certainly chunks of the project have been completed. A stretch of George St, with its newly laid track, has been reopened to the public. At the Central station end of Devonshire St tracks are also in place. In Randwick, in the city’s east, trams are being tested on a 2km section of fully completed track.
But even in places where track is being laid, it’s a tortuous process. Only 23 per cent of the rails are in place at the northern end of George St.
Mr Vithoulkas said she despaired at the tracks ending in the middle of the street, as businesses around them slowly went bust, starved of customers.
“Small business have been annihilated, people have lost their homes,” she said.
“How serious does it have to get before someone in Macquarie St begins to care?”
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