Gridlocked and unworkable’: Dire warning for Sydney’s trains from former top execs

The Berejiklian government’s $20 billion-plus metro train line under construction in Sydney could have been built far more cheaply ‘‘with more sensible planning’’, four former top rail executives say in a highly critical assessment of the project.

In an analysis released under freedom-of-information laws, the former NSW rail heavyweights warned that the metro train plans would result in ‘‘degradation of the robustness and reliability’’ of Sydney’s existing heavy rail network, and ‘‘ultimately lead to the total network becoming gridlocked and unworkable’’.

And they said the ‘‘takeover’’ of an existing rail line between Sydenham and Bankstown for the government’s single-deck metro train project would remove ‘‘the relief valve for the network’’ and leave ‘‘no escape route’’.

Read more on the Sydney Morning Herald.