Swift wrote:Build an extension, just not as a device to inflate Harry's profit margin. Restore the line along the median of Anzac Pde instead.
Since the notion of extending Metro West to the SE to Malabar is being talked up, the reason for extending CSELR to Maroubra Junction would be to provide a connection with the metro and do all the bus interchange there.
Personally I think the way to ultimately tie off CSELR is to extend it to Coogee and Maroubra Beaches. There is plenty of development and potential development to support it (not to mention the recreational market) and the ROWs in both cases are still basically there.
tonyp wrote:
Personally I think the way to ultimately tie off CSELR is to extend it to Coogee and Maroubra Beaches. There is plenty of development and potential development to support it (not to mention the recreational market) and the ROWs in both cases are still basically there.
But then it might be too easy for all those nasty westie ferals to get to the beach; can't have that. What's good for Bondi is good for Coogee too.
Preserving fire service history @ The Museum of Fire.
Too late. That started in 1883 when the lower classes who couldn't afford the Manly ferry fare found the Coogee tram opened up access to the seaside for them.
I hope they get to go that fast when they enter service.
The wheels on the tracks made a sound very reminiscent of a train, but much quieter. This video definitely helped to make that $2.1b seem like less of a waste.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation ... bb4876f140
"Australia’s biggest light-rail project, from Sydney’s CBD to the eastern suburbs, is in disarray amid demands from its Spanish subcontractors for an extra $1.2 billion and NSW government accusations of a construction go-slow that could delay completion beyond next year.
The demand from Acciona — made through its lawyers and on top of a $500 million blowout already agreed to by the state government — threatens to more than double the original $1.6bn cost of the project linking the city to Randwick.
The latest demand sparked a furious response from NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance and is headed for a showdown in the NSW Supreme Court next Friday. Acciona’s lawyers claim the government misled the contractor on how many utility lines would have to be moved during construction and the complexity of the work.
The NSW government is furious over reports Acciona has gone on a go-slow, with about 100 people working on the project each day when several hundred should be doing so. As many workers are being deployed daily on the 12km track as are being deployed on the 2.7km light-rail line being built in Newcastle.
State governments around the nation have embarked on a wave of urban transport projects, including the $11bn Melbourne Metro project, Brisbane’s $5.4bn Cross River Rail and Canberra’s light-rail line.
Government sources yesterday suggested the stoush could cause a delay in the project, particularly if the dispute sent the consortium building the line into administration. Work in the CBD has crippled traders on George Street and disrupted traffic to venues such as the SCG and Randwick racecourse.
For the week ending March 22, a progress report showed the project moved only 0.4 per cent forward. This compared with periods last year when 3 to 5 per cent of the project was being built each week.
Only half the civil construction has been finished, several months after the total project was due to be completed.
The light rail is a signature project for NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who announced it as transport minister...
Acciona, which reports to a private-sector consortium known as ALTRAC, sent a letter to Transport for NSW on February 22, warning of Supreme Court action over their demand.
The letter, obtained by The Weekend Australian, says: “In addition to the sum claimed in the commercial list statement by way of loss and damage, our client also maintains it is entitled to interest on the sum of $101m, bringing the total sum sought by our client to $1.206bn. We await your prompt response. Please note that if we have not received your client’s reply within 21 days of the date of this letter, we are instructed to finalise and file the Commercial List Statement and commence proceedings against TfNSW without further notice.”
In response, on March 22, Mr Constance wrote: “As I have previously advised you in our face-to-face meetings, the NSW government is very unhappy with your performance in relation to the construction of the Sydney Light Rail project.
“I have no doubt that Sydney’s residents and businesses are also incredibly frustrated. I recently described NSW as an unhappy customer — let me make it clear we’re now an angry customer.
“As you know, the Sydney Light Rail Project is being delivered under a public-private partnership model where Transport for NSW has contracted the ALTRAC Light Rail Partnership to build and operate the project.
“ALTRAC has in turn engaged Acciona to design and build the civil construction aspects of the project. Therefore there is no contract between Transport for NSW and Acciona, nor indeed between it and the state of NSW.”
Mr Constance said any issues Acciona had should be raised with ALTRAC. “You will also be aware that the contract between Transport for NSW and ALTRAC, and in turn the contract between ALTRAC and Acciona, spells out how the risks of dealing with utilities for the construction of the light rail are to be managed.
“Acciona negotiated and accepted these provisions and has since made use of them. I was therefore shocked and dismayed to be informed that Acciona … has threatened legal proceedings against Transport for NSW, based on allegations that Transport for NSW made misrepresentations to Acciona about the utilities in the lead-up to the signing of the contracts in December 2014. We have always said this is a complex project and both Acciona and ALTRAC knew this when they signed up.”
So a typical government run infrastructure project, double the time, double the cost. And who cops it in the neck, nobody. $3.2 billion would buy 6,400 buses at $500k or 500 Waratah carriages based on the $6.25m per carriage of the B sets.
$3.2 billion would also buy about 5 CSELRs in Europe.
But it wouldn't buy a railway line down the SE corridor, let alone with the stop coverage of a tramway and, while it would buy lots of buses, they would form a higher operating-cost carpark along the corridor trying to provide the same capacity - which is the problem CSELR is intended to solve.
CSELR is partly rectifying a monstrous policy mistake made back in the 1950s and we've been paying for it ever since. That's what you get with politicians and bureaucrats at their worst (which seems to be most of the time ever since the 1950s).
I wonder what happens if the Supreme Court sides with the government and Acciona or ALTRAC go into administration? More delays, one would presume, and more cost as the government would probably have to go begging for someone else to come in and take it over - likely at great expense given the perceived risk.
What a mess. Acciona probably has a legitimate grievance when it comes to shifting utilities. I actually had members involved in the proposed line in my taxi before the project got started and one of them commented that the government had no idea what they were in for when it came to the myriad of underground structures in George st. Asking $1.1 billion, though, is highway robbery in anyone's books. They should ask a greatly reduced compromise and never bid for work here again.
I recall that the Gold Coast consortium also got burnt on the civil works and the civil contractor withdrew from their Sydney bid, leading to that consortium's withdrawal. It seems to be the kiss of death for contractors. It's the contractor's risk though once contracts have been signed.
tonyp wrote:I recall that the Gold Coast consortium also got burnt on the civil works and the civil contractor withdrew from their Sydney bid, leading to that consortium's withdrawal. It seems to be the kiss of death for contractors. It's the contractor's risk though once contracts have been signed.
Not if relocating said utilities was not included in the contract! What contractor would agree to relocate "whatever is there"?
Linto63 wrote:So a typical government run infrastructure project, double the time, double the cost. And who cops it in the neck, nobody. $3.2 billion would buy 6,400 buses at $500k or 500 Waratah carriages based on the $6.25m per carriage of the B sets.
I'm starting to think that these liberals are even more of a basket case with transport than the old Labor administration. Its obviously another taxpayer funded nightmare that our government calls public transport infrastructure.
They finished the tracks along Anzac Pde through Kingsford months ago, and ever since they have had the kerbside traffic lanes blocked off with little activity taking place. Have to wonder why all this is relative to the tram lines?
Preserving fire service history @ The Museum of Fire.
boronia wrote: Have to wonder why all this is relative to the tram lines?
In some sections the overhead is carried from the sides of the road. So they build huge piles to sit the OHW masts on.
In some sections the road has to be widened by ~500mm
In all sections the power + Optus HFC is being undergrounded. And in all sections the stormwater system included the stormwater pits are seemingly being renewed.
Why they do nothing for months at a time though is a mystery.
And who cops it in the neck, nobody. 
$3.2 billion would buy 6,400 buses at $500k or 500 Waratah carriages based on the $6.25m per carriage of the B sets.
