'We cannot in all good conscience support it': Liberals will oppose light rail to Woden at 2024 ACT election

Confirmation the opposition will oppose the next stage of light rail at the next ACT election has followed weeks of the party seeking to cast doubt on the project's cost, timing and benefits.

ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the party could not support a Woden light rail link and would not be proposing an alternative route.

"The [ACT transport] minister [Chris Steel] has refused to be up front and transparent with the public. So based on the information that we do have to date, we cannot see how this stacks up and we cannot in all good conscience support it," Ms Lee said.

Light rail has been a signature policy of the territory government, which promised an extension to Woden before the 2016 election.

The first light rail stage, linking Gungahlin and the city, began operations in April 2019, following years of planning and construction.

Ms Lee told The Canberra Times a Liberal government would reinvest the money earmarked for light rail into schools, hospitals, roads and other front-line services.

"My vision for the future of Canberra is where we reinvest and prioritise our front-line workers - our nurses, our teachers and the needs of our children - so they can access affordable housing, so that we can take pride in our city, where local basic services are maintained to a world-class standard. And that's what I'm going to focus on," she said.

Ms Lee in November said light rail was a "Labor-Greens white elephant", at that point declining to say whether her party supported the project.

The Opposition Leader also reaffirmed her party was considering whether a Civic stadium would be a possible infrastructure project under a changed government.

"My priority and my vision for infrastructure projects for Canberra would be to prioritise the ones that are going to bring the most economic and social benefit to all Canberrans," Ms Lee said.

The Canberra Liberals' announcement the party will not support light rail to Woden is the most significant policy pledge the opposition has made this term. The party has not governed in the ACT since 2001 and experienced an overall decline in primary vote in the last two territory elections.

"We've spoken to tens of thousands of Canberrans, and there's no doubt there's growing frustration with this Labor-Greens government and its, I suppose, weddedness to the tram no matter what," Ms Lee said.

"We have asked on a number of occasions, 'Is there a ceiling? Is it going to get to a point where you say, actually, it doesn't stack up'? They've made it very clear that no matter what it costs, no matter what any business case or cost-benefit analysis says, they will proceed with the project."

The ACT government has committed to releasing cost estimates for stage 2A and 2B once contracts are signed, which it says will ensure the territory achieves value for money on the project, and releasing business cases in the future.

Ms Lee said the Canberra Liberals conceded stage 2A - a short link between the current city terminus and Commonwealth Park - would be under way by the time of the next election.

"Stage 1 is here, we accept that even the reality that stage 2A is probably going to happen. We want it to work - we absolutely want it to work - and that's what we want to do," she said.

Light rail's first stage recorded higher-than-expected passenger numbers before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically reduced the number of trips taken on public transport.

Stage 2 has the backing of the federal government, which has promised $218.4 million for the project.

Ms Lee said Adelaide Avenue did not provide the natural blocks to build stops for the city to Woden line, and light rail would offer a significantly slower connection than the current direct bus service.

"What we have also heard from south-siders, people who live in Woden, who are public transport users, saying that their main concern is that even based on this Labor-Greens government's own assumptions, the light rail would take a lot longer than the direct bus," she said.

Ms Lee said the Canberra Liberals would consider urban infill to deliver affordable housing, rather than justifying the light rail project.

Increased density around light rail routes is part of the benefits considered by the ACT government in assessing the project, but criticised by the Auditor-General in an audit of the 2019 stage 2A business case.

"What we want to do is look at urban infill and the way that we can ensure that the Canberra community have access to affordable housing for that purpose: affordable and accessible housing," Ms Lee said.

A consultants' report to the government found the broader light rail corridor had capacity for 30,000 dwellings, more than double the current 13,100 dwellings in the area.

A separate study presented to the government found the public cost of preparing an urban infill dwelling site could be eight times cheaper than a greenfield dwelling site.

The opposition in November unveiled a "conservative" estimate for the true cost of light rail to Woden.

Opposition transport spokesman Mark Parton said said his party had calculated the cost of light rail to Woden as $3.042 billion with a completion date of 2034.

The government did not directly dispute the figures in a Legislative Assembly debate and has not released its own estimates, citing ongoing procurement processes.

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Transport Minister Chris Steel told the Legislative Assembly late last month the Liberals' shift away from supporting light rail to Woden amounted a betrayal of the south side.

""It's clear under a Liberal government that they would never have built light rail stage 1 from the city to Gungahlin. And despite what they promised at the [2020] election, they will never build light rail stage 2 to Woden. Ever," Mr Steel said.

Ms Lee said the party would release a comprehensive public transport policy closer to the election, and was considering what role electric buses could play in delivering the city's public transport network.

In the lead up to the 2020 election, the Canberra Liberals authorised advertising material warning Canberrans could not trust the Barr government because it intended to invest in electric buses with "serious reliability problems".

Ms Lee said technological advancements since the original announcement of light rail's first stage showed it was time to rethink the second stage, agreeing that trackless trams could be worth considering.

"Electric buses have come such a long way. We've seen that they work, they're cheaper, they're faster and they are more versatile. We are able to have the option of looking at electrifying our bus fleet faster because we won't be spending millions and millions of dollars on the tram," she said.

Twelve electric buses are soon due to enter service in Canberra's government-run public transport system.

Ms Lee said there was more that could be done to give Canberrans the "genuine options" so they did not have to rely on their cars.

"That's not to demonise car drivers either, because technology in terms of electric cars has come a long way as well," she said.

The southern end of London Circuit, along with the western clover-leaf exits from Commonwealth Avenue, closed on Friday night to allow work to begin on raising London Circuit, the first major part of stage 2A light rail works.

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