At a cost of $8 billion, that amounts to $133 million a second, according to the government’s own transport masterplan.
In just under 20 years, the drive from Rouse Hill to Macquarie Park will take 82 minutes if the rail link is built – or 83 minutes if it is not. Now it takes 63 minutes.
The draft report also said the M4 East project will shave six minutes off travel times from Parramatta to Sydney and the M5 duplication will save nine minutes from Liverpool to Sydney Airport.
Infrastructure NSW chairman Nick Greiner and chief executive Paul Broad have argued against the government’s preference for the North West Rail Link, with Mr Greiner even calling it a “social equity project”.

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Infrastructure NSW, which is due to report back to the government next month with its own plan, wants the M4 East and M5 duplication given priority at a cost of $10 billion to $15 billion.
Premier Barry O’Farrell and Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian are sticking with the rail link, a Liberal pre-election pledge.
Ms Berejiklian also wants a $10 billion-plus second Harbour rail crossing to work in conjunction with the North West rail project.
Professor David Hensher, from the Institute of Transport and Logistics at Sydney University, yesterday said he was “absolutely not surprised” that the government’s own modelling had found the rail project would make little difference to road congestion.
“It’s not a big enough project to make a difference,” he said. “Single individual projects on a fairly narrowly defined (route) … are not going to make much of a difference.”
Professor Hensher said he had done modelling work showing bus journeys using transit lanes on the M2 take up to 20 minutes less than if the North West Rail Link existed, particularly as all passengers would have to change at Chatswood to get into the city.

The fact the project will have little effect on road congestion is also backed by the government’s project definition report sent to Infrastructure Australia last year which claimed the link would carry more than 70,000 passengers a day by 2031, but of those “approximately two-thirds are expected to transfer from other rail services” (like the Richmond and Western lines), with the remainder from buses and cars.
Ms Berejiklian did not address the issue of a minor reduction in road congestion but said in a statement: “The trip from Rouse Hill to Macquarie Park will take around 26 minutes on the North West Rail Link – a massive incentive to use public transport.
“The North West Growth Centre will grow by some 200,000 people over the coming decades and there is no question that the North West Rail Link has to be built.”
Opposition Leader John Robertson said the project was “the dud deal of the century”.
s”The Government still hasn’t announced a start date, a finish date or how they are going to pay for it – but already questions are starting emerge about whether or not this project will deliver value for taxpayer dollars,” Mr Robertson said.