CBD and South East Light Rail


The CBD and South East Light Rail is a pair of light rail lines running between Sydney's central business district and the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Services running between Circular Quay and Randwick are branded as the L2 Randwick Line, with services running between Circular Quay and Kingsford branded as the L3 Kingsford Line. Construction commenced in October 2015, with the L2 Randwick Line commencing services on 14 December 2019 and the L3 Kingsford Line on 3 April 2020.

Background and initial announcement

Since the light rail network's original line opened in 1997, a line through the Sydney central business district had been suggested numerous times but failed to achieve State Government support. This changed in February 2010 when the Keneally Government announced a new line from Haymarket to Circular Quay via Barangaroo. The final route was not decided, with the three options being to send the line north via George Street, Sussex Street or a loop using both.
When the O'Farrell Government took office in March 2011, it committed to building a line through the CBD to Barangaroo, with a preferred route along George Street. It also committed to conducting feasibility studies into the construction of lines from the City to Sydney University and the City to the University of New South Wales. On 8 December 2011, the government announced shortlisted potential routes for these extensions. In 2012, Transport for NSW decided the routes to Sydney University and Barangaroo via The Rocks provided fewer customer benefits and were considered a lower priority. A route from Circular Quay to the University of New South Wales via Central station was seen as the best option.
On 13 December 2012, the government announced a commitment to build a $1.6 billion line from Circular Quay down George Street to Central station, then across to Moore Park and down Anzac Parade with branches to Kingsford and Randwick. Construction was expected to begin in 2014 and to take five to six years.

Design

The line services areas that were previously served by Sydney's former tram network. Some of the new route follows tram lines of the former network. The route is mostly on-street but includes an off-street section through Moore Park. The only major engineering works on the line were a new bridge over the Eastern Distributor and a tunnel under Moore Park and Anzac Parade. There will be between eight and ten new traffic light controlled intersections created along the route.
Several changes to the design were announced in December 2014. The major changes involve revising platform lengths at all stops to support an increase in the length of the trams from to, redesigning several stops, switching technologies for the delivery of the wire-free section and the removal of a proposed stop at World Square. It was also announced that the projected cost had increased from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion. The government claimed the increase was due to the design modifications, but a 2016 report produced by the Audit Office of New South Wales found that the increase was largely due to TfNSW underestimating the cost of the project. In 2021, the Audit Office of New South Wales released a follow-up performance audit that found that the total cost of the project exceed $3.1 billion.
A pedestrian zone was established along approximately 40% of George Street, between Bathurst and Hunter Streets. The pedestrian zone is being extended southwards to Rawson Place in Haymarket as of 2021.
The section between Town Hall and Circular Quay is wire-free, with trams using Alstom's proprietary APS technology to run instead. This was originally to have been achieved by equipping the trams with batteries and providing recharging facilities at stops.
The line is designed to handle special events in the Moore Park precinct and at Randwick Racecourse. Events at Moore Park were initially planned to be served using two coupled trams long, with double length platforms at the Central Station and Moore Park stops. Following the decision to make all tram vehicles operate in coupled pairs with a total length of, the plans to build double length platforms at Central and Moore Park were abandoned, and platforms of all stops were built to be long. This made the tram-sets the longest in the world under regular operation.
A depot for the trams was built at the north-western corner of Randwick Racecourse, providing stabling facilities and allowing light maintenance. Heavy maintenance is conducted at the Lilyfield Maintenance Depot at the site of the former Rozelle Yard. The maintenance depot will be accessed via the Inner West Light Rail.

Construction

The line was built as a public–private partnership, with the contract covering detailed design, major construction, operation and maintenance of the line as well as the provision of rolling stock. A contract for early construction works was awarded to Laing O'Rourke in July 2014.
In February 2014, three consortia were short-listed for the main contract – covering the construction and operation of the line:
The consortium withdrew after Balfour Beatty pulled out. Balfour Beatty was reportedly concerned about cost overruns for the project and falling profitability of the company as a whole.
On 23 October 2014, Connecting Sydney was announced as the preferred bidder. The contract was finalised in December 2014, when it was also announced that the consortium had been renamed ALTRAC Light Rail, and that the opening date had been brought forward to early 2019. The contract also included the operation and maintenance of the Inner West Light Rail from mid-2015.
Major construction commenced on 23 October 2015, beginning in the section of George Street between King and Market Streets. To minimise disruption along the length of the corridor, works were staggered across 31 construction zones. The first section of track in the CBD was laid in December 2016, by which time a total of of track had already been laid across the project. This increased to around of track by May 2017. By October 2017, track installation reached the halfway mark, with of track laid at 23 of the 31 zones along the alignment.

Bus network changes

The CBD and South East Light Rail required significant changes to the bus networks of the Sydney central business district and the Eastern Suburbs. Prior to construction of the light rail, Hillsbus and State Transit bus routes using George Street were permanently removed from the street. The network was further redesigned when the light rail opened in 2020. Some bus routes from the Eastern Suburbs were removed from the CBD, with many of the routes integrated with the light rail interchanges at Randwick and Kingsford. Some passengers are required to change from bus to light rail to complete their journey.
To accommodate construction of the light rail on George Street, new bus timetables were introduced on 4 October 2015. Buses were diverted from George Street on to other streets in the CBD, including Elizabeth, Castlereagh, Park, Druitt, Clarence and York Streets. Some routes had their terminus changed to such places as Railway Square, Queen Victoria Building and King Street Wharf. A small number of routes were either combined so that they run through the CBD without terminating, removed from the CBD entirely or completely discontinued.

Delays

Construction suffered from significant delays. Major construction of the project was due to conclude in April 2018, though finishing works were to continue for some time after.
Delays at two zones in the CBD were announced in August 2016. Originally meant to be completed before Christmas 2016, construction work at these zones was to continue for several months longer than originally anticipated. The zones were eventually opened around a year after the planned completion date. Further delays to the project arose during 2016.
By the beginning of 2018 the whole project was significantly behind schedule. In March 2018 – one month before major works were originally due to be completed – the Transport Minister declined to put a date on when he expected construction of the line to be finished, but noted the government was "an unhappy customer" of the ALTRAC consortium.
The relationship between the New South Wales Government and Acciona Infrastructure – the construction company delivering the line – had deteriorated with a dispute arising between the parties over costs incurred from modifications to the line's design. Acciona commenced legal action against the government in April 2018, seeking additional payments totalling $1.2 billion. Later in the month ALTRAC told the government it was working towards a completion date of March 2020.
In October 2018, Acciona announced further delays to the project, stating that it would not be completed until May 2020.
In June 2019, TfNSW and ALTRAC reached an agreement to resolve their commercial issues and legal claims. As part of the agreement, the PPP was extended to 2036, with the government to pay up to $576 million over the duration of an extended PPP term, and ALTRAC shareholders to invest additional equity into the project to meet costs. The settlement package resolved over $1.5 billion of legal claims between TfNSW and ALTRAC, and Acciona withdrew its $1.1 billion legal misrepresentation claim against the government. The agreement also included milestone and incentive payments for light rail services to commence in two stages, with target start dates of December 2019 between Randwick and Circular Quay, and March 2020 between Kingsford and Circular Quay.

Associated works

Separate to the light rail budget, Randwick City Council earmarked $68 million to partially mitigate the impacts of the light rail. Projects include replacing some of the car parking spaces that were lost, especially in Kingsford, works to improve traffic flow in the district and public domain works.
The City of Sydney planned to provide $220 million towards the light rail project. This would include money for public domain works on George Street and surrounding laneways. The centrepiece of these works was to be a large arch structure known as Cloud Arch located outside the Sydney Town Hall, however it was cancelled in late 2018 after cost blowouts. Cloud Arch would have acted as a gateway to the pedestrian section of George Street, with trams passing underneath it.