Another light rail white elephant is born

Advertisement

By Leith van Onselen

This site has gone to great effort exposing the pitfalls of the ACT Light Rail Project.

We’ve also scrutinised both the Parramatta Light Rail Project and the Eastern Suburbs Light Rail Project in Sydney, which are facing massive cost blow-outs and delays.

Now we’ve got another to add to the list, with the South Australian government warning the cost of Adelaide’s new 4-stop tramline extension could blow out to $124 million:

The cost of Adelaide’s controversial tram extension is set to blow out by $44 million with the state government laying the blame on the previous Labor administration.

Transport Minister Stephan Knoll says signalling problems that have delayed the opening of the line down North Terrace could push the total cost of the project to $124 million.

Advertisement

Let’s be honest, rail is most efficient when large numbers of passengers need to be moved point-to-point, such as on suburban train corridors into the CBD.

However, there are clear drawbacks from building a light rail system to service moderate passenger numbers when dedicated busses could get the job done equally well (or better) at lower cost, with greater flexibility in routes, as well as avoiding the massive capital costs and interruptions experienced with rail during the construction phase.

[email protected]

Advertisement
About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.