The $12 billion North West Metro is not expected to survive in its current form, and four big Rail Clearways projects worth $1 billion, promised by the New South Wales Government but not yet built, are also at risk. It is also possible the Government might defer the $1.37 billion South West Rail Link from Glenfield to Leppington.

If you look at each new federal government over the past 40 years — Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Howard and Rudd — their initial victories were largely due to the establishment of beachheads of support in developing suburbs. Having won these voters over, each government has faced the task of trying to hold onto them.

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.