The December 1 rally starts at noon and is part of a broader push to convince the Baird government to drop its privatisation plans for Hunter public transport.

The unions have been pushing for talks with the government but Rail, Tram and Bus Union assistant secretary Dave Woollams said he’d been told his organisation would not get an appointment with NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance until next year.

At least four consortia are believed to be interested in bidding for the Newcastle light rail contract, which is one of a number being let by governments around Australia.

Sources in two companies interested in bidding for the work have told the Newcastle Herald that the Hunter Street task may be better suited to buses rather than light rail.

Even so, one source said competition for the Newcastle job would be intense because winning it would allow someone bidding for one of the later contracts to say they had “demonstrated success” in the field.

A government call for “market soundings”, which closed on November 20, says the main aim of the privatisation plan is to lift public transport patronage rates.

“Newcastle city centre employment growth is low and the contribution of the city centre to [the] economic output of the whole city is the lowest in Australia,” the request for tender says.

“Public transport patronage in the city is falling, despite an increasing population.”

But public transport advocate Darrell Harris said bus usage was down in other regional areas.

Buses in the Illawarra, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Hunter regions carried 14.7 million passengers (excluding school students and fare-free zones) in 2014-15, a fall of 500,000 passengers in a year. Newcastle Buses contributed only part of this loss.

 “There is no evidence a private operator will do any better than State Transit,” Mr Harris said.