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.
