While the minister has yet to deliver on her promise to add another 135 express services to the city from western Sydney and the Central Coast, she has managed to pay private contractors up to $1.8 million a month to tell her what’s wrong with the state’s public transport system.

Winners in the outsourcing bonanza include managing consulting firm Booz and Company, which is collecting $9.8 million from the government. This includes $6.3 million to design and deliver a reform program for RailCorp and $2.8 million to provide “transition expertise and change management support” to the Transport Department.

Another company, Parsons Brinckerhoff, collected $271,000 for six months’ work analysing commuter transport needs and data collection.

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The government has also engaged a number of firms to undertake “community relations services” to support projects.

But Ms Berejiklian defended the spending, saying the state government had launched crucial, once-in-a-generation reform, including a reform of RailCorp and the creation of integrated transport authority Transport for NSW.

She said the government was “comprehensively reforming the transport system” and they required “independent, expert advice” to ensure the new organisations were efficient and effective.