Speaking at a transport conference in Sydney today, former New South Wales transport minister Carl Scully said the metro project was not a silver bullet to overcome an emerging congestion problem on the existing rail network.

Written by Jim Steer, a world-leading transport consultant and executive with Britain’s former Strategic Rail Authority, the Sydney Transport Review report says the planned 38-kilometre Euro-style subway - from Rouse Hill to St James Station - is too long to be viable as a metro, is predicated on a poor business case and will do little to alleviate the CityRail congestion crisis.

The failures of the New South Wales Government cannot simply be blamed on the inept leadership of Morris Iemma; it begins much earlier. NSW Labor trains its young members to have a complete disregard for public policy from the day they join.

A former Wollongong Council member had claimed that Noreen Hay, the MP for Wollongong, pressured him to overturn a council decision on the redevelopment of the North Beach Bathers’ Pavilion, and said he believed Ms Hay was acting on behalf of the developer.