A high-speed rail link from Sydney to Newcastle could potentially reduce the journey from 2.5 hours to just one hour while travelling at an incredible 320km/h.
But the cost of linking NSW’s two most populous cities could be for more than $40billion, based on estimates for the cost of a high-speed line for a shorter route.
Modelling done two years ago by the NSW government found a high-speed track from Sydney to Gosford – 83km south of Newcastle – would cost up to $32billion.
The modelling, which was done under then-Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, shows how enormous the financial challenge of extending such a line to Newcastle – 168km from Sydney – as is being considered by the federal government, would be.
A rail link from Sydney Olympic Park to Gosford would take up to 12 years to build after planning approval was granted, according to secret documents obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Perrottet government’s plans were never made public and were shelved when the Coalition lost the 2023 NSW state election to Labor.
So any future plans for such a route would rely heavily on federal funding and form an initial plank of an eventual high-speed line from Brisbane to Melbourne.
The Albanese government was presented with a business case for a high-speed rail line connecting Sydney to Newcastle late in 2024.
A high-speed rail link from Sydney to Newcastle could potentially reduce the journey from 2.5 hours to just one hour while travelling at an eye-watering 320km/hour (stock image)
The cost of linking NSW ‘s two most populous cities could be for more than $40billion (pictured, passengers disembark a train at Sydney’s Central Station)
With a federal election due within months, pressing ahead with the project would form part of Labor’s manifesto, opening it up to questions from the Opposition about its massive cost.
One major difference between the state Coalition plan and the federal Labor plan is the potential speed of the trains.
While the state plan was for trains travelling at up to 250km/h, the federal plan would see trains reaching speeds of up to 320km/h.
Another difference is that the federal High Speed Rail Authority’s (HSRA) plan is for a line running under Sydney Harbour to Central Station.
The previous NSW Coalition government’s proposal was for the main Sydney station to be at Olympic Park, which is 19km west of Sydney’s CBD.
HSRA’s CEO Tim Parker did not say how much a new line from Sydney to Newcastle would cost, saying it was a different project to the previous state government plan.
‘It’s not so much cost. it’s the benefits it generates,’ he said.
Any funding decisions for a high-speed rail link from Newcastle to Sydney will depend in part on an assessment by Infrastructure Australia, which is taking place.
The federal government has committed $500million to plan for a corridor for a high-speed rail line on the Sydney to Newcastle route, with $79million of that being spent on investigating the business case.
