NSW Labor pushes for trains to be manufactured locally

NSW opposition leader Chris Minns has spent the day touring Melbourne's rail facilities, dreaming of, and pushing for, a locally manufactured train facility in his own state.

Stickers embellish several of the trains, proudly reading "Made in Melbourne" and "Made in Victoria".

"There's zero local component for major infrastructure in NSW at the moment, we need to turn that on its head," said the opposition leader.

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Mr Minns and 9news were invited on a tour of the Alstom factory, a place which is known to churn out up to 50 trains a year.

Alstom's commercial director, Todd Garvey, said the scale of production is an indicator of how many jobs are up for grabs.

"We have 450 employees at our Dandenong training and manufacturing facility and our ongoing orders support over 1500 suppliers in Victoria," said Mr Garvey.

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Sydney's transport stock is currently bought from anywhere but NSW: trams built in France and Spain, metros from India, trains from China and South Korea and ferries from Indonesia.

NSW Shadow Transport Minister, Jo Haylen, has dismissed the Liberals argument that internationally manufactured trains are cheaper.

"The taxpayer of NSW is not only paying more, but we don't have a reliable transport system," she said.

Labor has had various local jobs and manufacturing policies for years now - but Mr Minns intends to make this the cornerstone of his election campaign next year and it's already having an impact.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet made it clear that his opinion does not reflect that of former premier Gladys Berejiklian after she said that NSW was "not good at building trains, that's why we have to purchase them".

"I think the people of NSW are great at everything - and when it comes to onshore manufacturing that's something I'm incredibly passionate about," the premier said.

Mr Perrottet has set up a taskforce to look at the industry, and announced new electric buses to be built in Western Sydney.