The decision of the NSW Government to put the Maldon Dombarton Rail on the back burner raises big questions about $25 million that the Federal Labor Government gave to the NSW Government to accelerate the project.

Transport for NSWs Freights and Ports Plan 2018-2023 outlines key infrastructure projects for the next five years but shows the completion of the Maldon-Dombarton line is more than a decade away.

Among the detail of the 84-page report is a single line about the semi-finished railway line under initiatives for investigation

Maldon-Dombarton Railway Line

Single track rail line between the Main South Line at Maldon in the Southern Highlands and Dombarton in the Illawarra (10+ years)

TFNSW 2018 2023 Freight and Ports Plan, Page 63

In 2011 the Gillard Labor Government provided $25 million dollars to the NSW Government to fund planning, geotechnical and engineering studies

If the NSW Liberals have now decided to kick this critical project into the long grass that money has been wasted.

The NSW Government must also answer questions about its failed expressions of interest process.

In 2015 the then OFarrell government commenced an expression of interest project to elicit private sector investor interest in the project.

We know that private investors expressed interest but the Government did not proceed. It is now ingenuous of the Minister for the Illawarra Gareth Ward to claim that an obstacle to private investment is because the private sector wont invest.