But a top transport bureaucrat says the report, released last week, has "not yet been endorsed" and is "a guide".

The "transport management and accessibility plan" was made public along with a scoping study that put the cost of removing Newcastle's rail line and building a Wickham terminus at $374.5 million and $504.5 million.

Then premier Nathan Rees announced the commissioning of the reports last September after which the government would "make a call" on city transport.

The plan aims to boost trips city-centre commuters make aboard public transport to 16 per cent by 2016.

But as the Newcastle Herald has reported, that is below the government's target of 20 per cent, set out in the revised state plan.

When questioned by the Greens about the shortfall during a budget estimates hearing, department deputy director for transport policy and planning Joanna Quilty said the state plan was a "government target".

Ms Quilty said the plan set out options for the government to consider as it put together a submission to Infrastructure Australia about Newcastle, but that the transport plan had "not yet been endorsed".

The plan provides options for boosting patronage through bus service improvements, with or without the inner city rail line.

But before the plan was finished, Premier Kristina Keneally rejected "a solution that would rely only on buses, that we see merit in a light-rail solution".