High Court Overturns Appeal, Rules NSW Gov’t Liable For Light Rail Delays
Image: AAP/ Dan Himbrechts
The High Court has overturned a decision barring business owners in the CBD from accessing compensation for disruption caused during the construction of the light rail.
Ancio Investments and Hunt Leather led the action and were initially awarded $4 million in 2023, with Supreme Court Justice Richard Cavanagh ruling that the group of around 300 retailers and residents suffered from “unreasonable interference” from the construction of the 12km line from the CBD to Randwick and Kingsford.
The line was originally meant to be constructed in 33 zones that would take around three to six months per zone, but with the discovery of unmapped utilities, the timeline blew out from the first section of track in 2016 in George Street, CBD, to 2019 for the Randwick section, and 2020 for the Kingsford line.
George Street was effectively shut down by barriers, noise and dust as the budget for the project ballooned from $1.6 billion to a final cost of $2.96 billion, with Transport for NSW estimating that around 3,000 businesses and residents along the route may have been impacted.
Delays to the completion of the light rail network meant businesses lining the construction zones along George Street and into Randwick suffered huge decreases in foot traffic, accessibility issues, and difficulty meeting rent requirements.
“I watched my business die”
Last year, an appeal court found that they delays couldn’t have been foreseen by the NSW government, and they were not liable.
However, this ruling was overturned on Wednesday when the High Court found there had been significant interference in the use of the land by the traders, with Transport for NSW failing to minimise the degree of the interference when it was planning construction.
“It’s been a long, long, long, drawn out process,” said Angela Vithoulkas, former owner of George Street’s Vivo Cafe. “I watched my business die and I couldn’t do anything. All I could do was go to work every day knowing I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills.”
“There isn’t enough money to make up for what we all went through.”
Any business or resident who believe they were adversely affected by the construction of the light rail may be eligible to apply for compensation.
