Passengers on Canberra's proposed light rail line can expect travel times of less than 25 minutes between Gungahlin and the city in peak travel periods.
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An ACT Legislative Assembly committee on Tuesday heard the 13 kilometre tram line planned for Northbourne Avenue, the Federal Highway and Flemington Road would include a terminus at each end and 10 passenger stops.
Sustainable Development Minister Simon Corbell said the design of the individual vehicles and line infrastructure would be similar to other light rail projects in Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast.
Mr Corbell initially told the hearing the estimated travel time used as the basis of economic modelling for the project was subject to cabinet confidentiality, but later corrected his answer to say passengers would complete the full journey inside 25 minutes.
The head of the government agency charged with delivering the first stage of what could become a Canberra-wide tram network said passenger loading times at stops and platforms would vary between 30 seconds a one minute.
Capital Metro agency manager Emma Thomas said the stop time would vary depending on time of day and passenger capacity.
Under sometimes animated questioning from opposition transport spokesman Alistair Coe, Mr Corbell said the project's final business case would be completed around the end of the third quarter of 2014, likely in October.
He said the business case would provide certainty around the exact details of the line's operating system and passenger experience.
Labor backbencher Yvette Berry also asked why the government would outsource the operation of one aspect of Canberra's public transport system, when existing bus services were operated by a government agency.
Travel speeds are considered critical to the line's success or failure.
In a 2012 "concept design" report on the project, the average travel time from Gungahlin to the city during the morning rush hour was measured at 26 minutes for general traffic and 28 minutes for the express Red Rapid bus.
The government's unsuccessful funding application to Infrastructure Australia found the express bus service took about 34 minutes at 8am, 22 minutes during the middle of the day, and 28 minutes in the late afternoon.
Mr Coe used the two-hour estimates hearing to ask Mr Corbell and officials on everything from asbestos in utilities under Northbourne Avenue, to the rapid business case leaked to The Canberra Times last month.
He challenged Mr Corbell to address speculation that the government was only prepared to spend up to $1 billion on the line.
Mr Corbell declined to comment on what he called manufactured ''gossip'' and restated the government's public position that cabinet would not support a cost substantially beyond $614 million, adjusted for today’s dollars.
Adjusted to consider the expected start of construction by 2016, the figure would fall below $700 million.
"The government is not proposing to release revised cost estimates as we approach the procurement process," Mr Corbell said.
"To do so would be to potentially compromise that procurement process and competitive tension in that process. It could also compromise [receiving] value for money for the government and the community and it is generally the case that governments do not publicly disclose these analyses ahead of a procurement process for the reasons I've outlined."
He said the $614 million figure was an estimate reached before the government commited to the project as part of its governance agreement with Greens MLA and eventual Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury.
