"We took the busiest street in the nation and ripped it up to transform it into the open,inviting boulevard it is today."

He said the service would"move 6570 people across both directions during peak times and each 67-metre light rail vehicle will have the same capacity as up to nine standard buses".

But Labor leader Jodi McKay said:“Before Andrew Constance starts popping the champagne there are still a number of outstanding class action claims so the bill is likely to be $3 billion – almost double the original cost."

The light rail project has been a long-running political headache for the Berejiklian government.

Apart from the cost blowouts,it has been frustrated bylengthy delays,legal battlesand prolongeddisruption to businesses and residents along the route.

A$400 million class action from retailers disrupted by construction remains afoot in the NSW Supreme Court,but Transport for NSW has withdrawn cross claims against ALTRAC and Acciona.

The cost to the government of paying ALTRAC to operate the line for 16 years has previously been put at almost $938 million and is separate to the $2.9 billion capital cost of building the line and buying the trams that will run on it.

Sydneysiders will get a chance to ride on the new light rail lineas early as December 7,which is the target date for trams to start carrying passengers between Circular Quay and Randwick.

The government has been reluctant to put a definitive date on the opening of the line because final testing of the trams is still under way.

If authorities decide more testing is required,the start of services will be shifted to the weekend of December 14-15. Trams are not due to begin carrying passengers on a branch line to Kingsford until March 2020.

The government had originally planned to open the line in March this year,shortly before the state election.