Reality check or betrayal? What scrapping the tunnel really means for our region

You've sat in the bumper-to-bumper crawl through Blackheath on a long weekend. You've tapped your steering wheel in frustration at the traffic lights in Katoomba. You've watched the speedometer drop to a crawl climbing Mount Victoria, wondering why a national highway in 2026 still feels like a goat track.

We all know the pinch points. We've all lived the delay.

For years, the solution dangled in front of us was the "Great Western Highway Tunnel" - an 11-kilometre engineering marvel promised to bypass the chaos and connect the Central West to the coast properly. And the best part? It was going to be toll free.

This week, however, the Minns Labor Government officially put that dream to bed.

In their newly released Sydney to Central West Corridors White Paper - which regional journalist Bradley Jurd was able to reveal as an exclusive on Tuesday - the government branded the tunnel a "fantasy" and a "hollow promise".

Instead, they are pivoting to what they call "evidence-based planning".

Here's what the new plan looks like:

The government argues that immediate, practical fixes are better than an unfunded mega-project that might never happen.

But ... is that how the Central West sees it?

We asked you, our readers, for your verdict. And the response was overwhelming.

Almost seven in 10 people - 68.32 per cent of you who voted - are in favour of the tunnel.

The sentiment in our inbox this week hasn't been one of relief that the government is being "practical" - it's been one of frustration that they are being, in the words of Bathurst businessman Gavin Alderton, "blinkered".

"Consider the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the railway to Bathurst completed in 1876. Those projects were acts of vision," Mr Alderton wrote to us.

"What we are seeing now is the absence of it."

He argues, while piecemeal upgrades save money now, the true long-term cost of a highway that can be shut down by a single minor accident is far higher.

Other readers were more blunt. Jan Cody called the offer of cycleways "insulting" to commuters stuck in jams. Luke Brown called the lack of a four-lane highway to Dubbo a "betrayal".

It feels like we have been here before.

The Blue Mountains crossing is fast becoming our version of the often touted fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane - a project that makes perfect sense, gets announced with fanfare, and then quietly dies a death by a thousand reviews.

From the "history-making" promises of 2021 to the "fantasy" label of 2026, the whiplash for residents and businesses in the Central West is real. Business NSW warns that connectivity is the single biggest handbrake on our region's growth.

So, where does this leave us?

Are we right to demand a tunnel that might cost billions we don't have? Or should we accept the traffic lights and passing lanes as the best we're going to get?

The tunnel might be dead, but the traffic at Blackheath certainly isn't.

Let's keep the conversation going.

Email nick.mcgrath@austcommunitymedia.com.au with your thoughts on the topic.