Quote:

A rapidly growing list of large investors and property developers is in a high-stakes race to win state government backing for mega rail projects, including a Chinese-backed proposal for a fast-rail line between central Sydney and Wollongong.

...

Critics say many of the private-sector proposals are pushed by property developers whose primary aim is to unlock housing development and enrich themselves, rather than build public transport where it is needed most.

But Professor Peter Newman, of Curtin University in Western Australia and a former board member of federal advisory body Infrastructure Australia, said it was an inevitability that the private sector would play a bigger role in public transport projects.

"It is absolutely critical to have consortia now. We have been through the era of Stalinist transport planning and it doesn't work – there is no money for it," he said.
...