NSW Government Abandons Metro in Favour of $50 Billion Transport Blueprint

Kristina KeneallyTHE New South Wales Government has abandoned plans for its $5.3 billion Metro rail project in favour of a $50.2 billion transport blueprint which will include a $4.5 billion express rail service to Western Sydney, and a $6.7 billion North West rail link from Epping to Rouse Hill.

The government will retain about $120 million worth of Sydney CBD property it has already acquired “so the sites are protected for a future metro.”

This should pacify some vendors who have sold properties, or shaped their leasing decisions, thinking they’d be surrounded by a construction zone.

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Sydney Metro Spends $120 Million Acquiring Sites

Kristina KeneallySYDNEY Metro, the government arm which will commandeer the construction of the city’s new metro rail system, has paid $120 million for offices in the city centre.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally said Sydney Metro had now stopped buying sites, until the government makes its final decision about the project “shortly” – but a further  $180 million on property acquisitions is put away to be spent, to fund the project, the AFR reports.

Sydney Metro confirmed it has purchased 30 and 36 Clarence Street and 131 Bathurst Street, in the Sydney CBD, and two smaller offices in Rozelle, in the city’s inner west.

 

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