Taxpayers have been forced to buy extra intercity trains at greater cost because NSW’s transport department initially decided to reduce the number of carriage seats, despite modelling showing that it risked overcrowding, a scathing assessment of the purchase of two new train fleets has found.

A report by NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji – released on Tuesday – also found that “foreseeable changes” to the operating model for the state’s new intercity trains , which caused years-long delays and sparked industrial action, added $1 billion to the cost of the fleet, which is forecast to hit $4.5 billion.

The report is withering in its assessment of the agency’s purchase of both the intercity and long-distance regional train fleets, which have been years late and cost taxpayers billions of

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