Internal Transport for NSW documents have revealed a total revamp of Sydney’s Central Station at a cost of over $3 billion. The plans include a five-star hotel, high-rise towers and a new route for the inner-west light rail line, according to the documents leaked to Fairfax Media and the ABC.

A 2015 internal report for Transport for NSW found customers rated Central Station as complex and confusing to navigate, with older people and women feeling unsafe, and many seeing the station as old and rundown.

The site is over 20 hectares, and the plans are set to take over 20 years to complete. The upper floors of the main terminal building will become a 180-room boutique hotel, costing $120 million from 2025. Other plans include a plaza on Eddy Avenue, a Pitt Street colonnade with a new retail arcade, a western forecourt entrance to the station and an upgrade of the Devonshire Street tunnel. Plus, an estimated $750 million will incorporate Sydney's new metro train line into the station.

The inner west light rail line is set to be shifted from a stop outside the station's grand concourse to Pitt Street, and three towers up to 40 storeys will be constructed above a new bus terminal and layover on Lee Street. The Railway Square YHA hostel may be demolished to allow three commercial towers to be constructed.

The revamp is set to be funded from the revenue from the increased space for shops and offices in and around the station, but the revenues of this large scale redevelopment may never cover the costs.

Work has already begun on incorporating the metro train line into the station and the construction of an east-west concourse known as Central Walk is due to start next year.

A spokeswoman for Transport for NSW said "Initial consultation has taken place with industry, stakeholders and the public, and further engagement is expected in the new year. Any decision to proceed with development at the station will have to be subject to rigorous economic appraisal and Cabinet consideration."

The City of Sydney's chief transport advisor, Terry Lee-Williams, said "The first thing you have to do is make sure that the aspirations of future transport, like more metro and light rail servicing a growing CBD, are first and foremost in the thinking".

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