Why latest plans raise odds of high-speed line from Sydney to Newcastle

Plans for a $90 billion high-speed rail line between Sydney and Newcastle have moved a step closer to becoming reality after three international consortiums were shortlisted to design the most challenging section from the Central Coast to north of Hornsby.

Amid deep community scepticism about the project, the shortlisted consortiums will now compete to develop designs for 35 kilometres of twin tunnels and a new high-speed station at Gosford, which would be more akin to an airport terminal than a traditional train station for passengers.

The ambitious project’s two-year development phase is aimed at firm costs, designs and program schedules to be handed to the federal government by mid-2028 – shortly before the next national election – allowing it to then make an investment decision on whether to proceed.

High Speed Rail Authority chief executive Tim Parker said the shortlisting would enable a preferred bidder to be selected quickly if the government gives final approval, followed by a 10-year time frame to build the first section.

“This is the largest investment ever by government in this type of project. Often people say, ‘Oh, we’re just doing more studies’. We’re not. We’re actually going into a proper procurement,” said Parker, a former Sydney Metro senior executive.

“Sydney Metro was definitely a city-changing project. This has the potential for being a nation-changing project. It’s almost Sydney Metro on steroids, with respect to the impact it could have if we proceed.”

The alignment from the Central Coast to Sydney’s northern fringe is easily the most challenging section because it passes under the Hawkesbury River and hilly terrain covered by national park.

An expression of interest for an advanced manufacturing facility to be built somewhere along the proposed corridor will also be released next month. If the government approves the project, the facility will be used to manufacture components for the high-speed rail line.

“What we’re looking to try to do is, in essence, create a kit of parts for high speed, so that in future we’re not redesigning everything again and again,” Parker said.

A new station at Gosford – one of four between Newcastle and the Sydney CBD – would have four platforms.

Parker said high-speed rail stations would be “more like an airport than a railway station” in that passengers would not be waiting for their train on a platform.

“It will be an area probably a bit more relaxed where you’re sitting around, waiting. You get called to a gate … and then you go down to the platform,” he explained.

“We’re not designing just for Newcastle to Sydney. The stations have to be able to cater for much bigger traffic [for trains to run between Brisbane and Melbourne] in the future, once this line is fully operational.”

The tender process for the manufacturing facility will run in parallel with the design work for the 35-kilometre section from Ourimbah, north of Gosford, to Berowra.

The three consortiums shortlisted for design work for the Central Coast-Berowra leg comprise Spanish company Acciona and Chinese-owned John Holland; Gamuda from Malaysia, FCC from Spain and Korean giant Samsung; and a joint venture of CPB and Ferrovial, which are both Spanish-owned, and France’s Vinci.

Each consortium will receive up to $50 million in “fee for service” for their work.

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King said the three consortiums would determine the best and most innovative ways for tunnels between Berowra and Ourimbah, while ensuring taxpayers receive value for money.

“We said we’d go metre by metre and carefully plan the first stage of high-speed rail between Newcastle and Sydney. That’s what we’re delivering with these new contracts,” she said.

Parker said a shortlisting of contractors for the so-called area package from Ourimbah to Newcastle would be held early next year. Train suppliers for the project will be shortlisted later this week.

Three other major contracts comprising high-speed train platforms and a concourse at Central Station, a new station at Broadmeadow in Newcastle, and tunnels from Berowra to the Sydney CBD, will go to tender only if final investment approval is granted in 2028.

Sydney University transport professor David Levinson warned against people getting excited that the plans would result in a high-speed train line being constructed.

“They still have to come up with the money to build the thing. Someone has to fund $90 billion,” he said. “Until they show the money it’s not real.”

The latest shortlisting comes six months after a business case put the cost of building the line from Newcastle to Central Station at $61.2 billion, and an onward leg to Parramatta and the new Western Sydney Airport at $32.4 billion.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly ruled out the state committing funding for the project but has said his government would be willing to fast-track planning.

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