Sydney light rail review one year on

A year after Sydney's new light rail started taking passengers, the reviews aren't too favourable.

In 2013, the light rail was predicted to take 86,000 passengers a day, but that's dipped to about 14,000 – 84 per cent down on expectations.

Most of that can be blamed on COVID-19, but in comparison, Sydney's trains and buses only saw a 45 percent drop.

"It's not used, it's not loved," NSW Shadow Transport Minister Chris Minns said.

"The public's voting with their feet and they're not using it."

But Transport Minister Andrew Constance pointed the finger at the virus, saying the pandemic had "knocked it for six".

"There's no doubt projections aren't going to be met because of COVID," he said.

Nonetheless, the state budget revealed the light rail had the lowest rating for customer satisfaction – worse than the buses it replaced.

Now, businesses that were hammered during the construction of the light rail are asking if it's been worth it.

Peter Schick of the Kingsford Chamber of Commerce said the chamber "can't form an opinion".

"There's still a lot of adjustments to be done," he said.

The government is still trying to tweak how the light rail runs, in the hope of shaving a few minutes off the travel time.

The trip from Circular Quay to Randwick has already gotten faster this year.

"Overall it's working well as a service, the travel time is around 37 minutes," Mr Constance said.

But with a price tag of more than $3 billion, the government needs the public to agree.