Light Rail Overview

Light rail for Canberra had been mooted for several years before becoming official with the Parliamentary Agreement between the Greens and the Labor Party, after the 2012 election, as a condition of Greens support for Labor to form government. The Agreement provided for construction of Stage 1 of light rail, between Gungahlin town centre and Civic, to be started before the 2016 election.

Without the Greens having gained the balance of power and exercising it, light rail, most likely, would never have happened in Canberra.

Stage 1 was duly commissioned in April 2019.

Stage 2, from Civic to Woden, was announced as an eleventh-hour election promise by Labor during the ACT election of 2016.

Stage 2A, from Civic to Regatta Point, has since been approved by the ACT Government and is due for completion in 2024. Stage 2B, from Regatta Point to Woden, after crossing the lake, is currently subject to various studies and inquiries by respective authorities, eg the National Capital Authority.

From 2014, through to the October 2018 election, CanTheTram Inc, was the principal anti-tram lobby in Canberra.

Smart Canberra Transport (SCT) was formed as the successor to CanTheTram Inc, to continue analysis and comment on the on-going light rail project. Its primary purpose has been to analyse and report as a critic of Canberra’s light rail project, the history of which is recorded in 82 fortnightly newsletters, issued over four years, between the 2016 and 2020 ACT elections. SCT and ALSC will continue to analyse and comment on the light rail project.

 

Archived Newsletters

Smart Canberra Transport produced 82 newsletters between June 2017 and October 2020. These newsletters are accessible via the National Library of Australia’s Trove collection – click here to view

To assist readers, the register of the 82 newsletters, giving summaries of content, is included here for quick reference.

Articles

Canberra Light Rail Follies – Letters to Editor

In the boxes below are selected letters to the Editor published (and unpublished) in the Canberra Times and Canberra City News about the continuing folly that is Canberra’s light rail.  It is heartening to still see such letters from interested Canberrans and that they be published for which Canberra Times and Canberra City News should be congratulated.

While the Greens/Labor Government has a tin ear when it comes to the waste of taxpayers’ money on light rail, that is no reason not to keep up the fight against this wasteful project that is 100% ideological and 0% logical).  And let us never forget that the Labor Party brought this on itself by selling its soul to the Greens to hold on to power after the 2012 election

Light rail – Stage 1 Benefits Analysis Report

The ACT Government has released its report “Light Rail Five Years On: Benefits Realisation Report 2024”, April 2024, prepared by Transport Canberra, thus by a government agency writing its own report card.

While the report is well written, well presented an apparently well researched, it is not without some errors of fact and has deliberate omissions of importance to taxpayers.  Essentially, it is a one-way street of claimed positive outcomes of Stage 1, but contains nothing of the many downsides to taxpayers. 

Light rail costs skyrocketing

In December 2023, the ACT Government signed as contract for construction of Stage 2A of light rail, from Civic to Regatta Point. The contract price was $577M (excluding raising London circuit) for 1.7 km of track, being $339M per kilometre. For comparison, Stage 1, Gungahlin-Civic, cost $69M per km to build (in 2016-19). How could construction costs have possibly increased 500 per cent in five years? At this stage, with costs largely known, Stage 2A is expected to cost $1.66B for build and 20 years of Operations & Maintenance. Extrapolating component costs for Stage 2A, the estimate for Stage 2B, Regatta Point to Woden, could be $3.5B for build plus 20 years of O&M, being a total of $5.16B to get to Woden, sometime in the mid-2030s, if ever.

 

ACT Light Rail Cost Estimates – Stage 2A

This document provides and discusses the latest independent cost estimates by Smart Canberra Transport and Australian Logistics Study Centre (ALSC) for ACT light rail Stages 2A, based mostly on information released by the ACT Government, reports in the media and on independent life-cycle cost analysis. However, it should be noted by readers that the ACT Government is parsimonious at best in release of any cost information and contract details in respect of light rail.

A lesson for the ACT Government

The profligate ACT Government should read and heed how Brisbane is solving its public transport demands and it is not with outrageously expensive and outdated trams. The Brisbane City Council has been planning its new all-electric bus metro system since 2016, with service to commence in 2024.

ACT Auditor-General’s Report, Canberra Light Rail Stage 2 – Economic Analysis. Report No 8/2021

Since the decision to proceed with Light Rail Stage 1, the Territory has pursued an intention to extend the network to Woden as part of Stage 2. In September 2019, the ACT Government announced it had decided to split Light Rail Stage 2 into two components: Stage 2A – a 1.7‐kilometre extension Civic to Commonwealth Park; and Stage 2B – a 9‐kilometre light rail track from Commonwealth Park to Woden.

The government made public a redacted version of the Stage 2A Business Case on 10 September 2019.

SCT Critique Light Rail Stage 1 – Project Delivery Report

On 21 June 2019, the Government released its City to Gungahlin Light Rail Project Delivery Report, prepared by Transport Canberra.

Although a critic of light rail in Canberra, ALSC considers Stage 1 of the project to have been very well managed and to have delivered a sound technical product, ie a light rail system.  However, one cannot say the same for what one may call political manipulation of the project, from its inception, in terms of ideological objectives, one-way promotion, incredible claims in documentation released, grossly understating the real cost of the project and non-publication of information vital to public understanding, eg certain contract details.

The Black Hole That Is Canberra’s Light Rail – Published City News July 2018

How sad it is for the residents of Canberra to be staring into the ‘black hole’ that is light rail, a bottomless money pit that will suck in vast amounts of taxpayer funds, at great and unsustainable opportunity cost and cause serious disruption to the social fabric of our city.  Additionally, it will concentrate and monopolise development funds to the detriment, distortion and disruption of a balanced and equitable development of Canberra as a whole.

It is even sadder to think that we can blame this folly on the imperative for the Labor Party to retain office, having been born out of political expediency after the 2012 election and sustained by the ideology of a political minority.  Execution of Stage 1(Gungahlin-Civic), now under way, was a primary condition of Greens support.

The Black Hole That is Canberra’s Light Rail

Canberra’s light rail is a giant ‘black hole’, a bottomless money pit, which will suck in vast amounts of taxpayer funds, at great and unsustainable opportunity costs and cause serious disruption to the social fabric of Canberra. Additionally, it will concentrate and monopolise development funds to the detriment, distortion and disruption of a balanced and equitable development of Canberra as a whole.

A-G’s Report – Initiation of The Light Rail Project – Report No. 5 / 2016

In 2012 the ACT Government made a policy decision to implement a light rail between Gungahlin and Civic. Between 2012 and late 2014, the Capital Metro Agency undertook work to plan for the delivery of the Capital Metro light rail, including:

  • designing the light rail, i.e. determining its design features and how the light rail should operate;
  • estimating the costs associated with the light rail and the value of the benefits expected to be derived from the light rail; and
  • identifying the most appropriate way to proceed with the delivery of the light rail, including whether it should be delivered through a public private partnership.

This audit considers the activities of the Capital Metro Agency in initiating the Capital Metro Light Rail Project, following the ACT Government’s 2012 policy decision, including project management, governance and administrative arrangements associated with the Capital Metro Light Rail Project and activities to design the light rail, estimate the costs and benefits associated with the light rail and identify the most appropriate way to proceed with the delivery of the light rail.