It's ironic that Frank Sartor, the controversial planning minister dumped recently by incoming Premier Nathan Rees, reckons we need not just the North West Metro but several more ``West, to well beyond Parramatta, to the south-east and to the south-west,'' he wrote in the Herald last week.

In an impassioned plea not to dump the metro, the man attacked for his push to turn NSW planning laws on their head, urged his Government not to let the ``salivating economic rationalists'' of Treasury control the rail debate.

``Talk of abandoning major rail investment, such as the North West Metro, to fix a temporary drop in state revenue is foolhardy,'' he wrote.

``Cranky Franky,'' the lord mayor of Sydney in another life, argued that Sydney's No.1 challenge is transport mainly public transport and that the city's transport system is out of equilibrium.

While Labor under Carr and Iemma completed five motorways in the 10 years from 1997 62 new kilometres there has been barely an expansion in rail since the 1930s.

And in the intervening years Sydney's population has risen from a 1.3 million souls to a bustling 4.3million.

Sure, rail has been bolstered by the partial Eastern Suburbs Railway (1979), East Hills to Glenfield (1987) and the Airport Link (2000).

But Sartor says access to many parts of Sydney is inferior to other parts of the city (like The Hills).

``We probably need [to spend] more like $40billion over the next 25 years, rather than $12billion for one metro. Only then will

Sydney's growth be sustainable,'' he wrote.

Some will say this is a cheap shot at Rees.

But the Premier loads his own ammo by supporting a car-racing circus that may cost $90million.

Plus the gay Mardis Gras!

There's no money to support services, and our promised-to-death rail link looks set to be derailed yet again, yet Labor can find millions for an atavistic V8 Supercars race against the wishes of residents near Olympic Park who prefer their 500 trees to remain than be run over by a racetrack.

Nathan Rees is on his way continuing the long tradition of Labor Premiers who ignore what the people want. Call it Labor's cultural deafness.