The proposed high-speed rail line between Newcastle and Sydney, part of a larger plan connecting Brisbane and Melbourne, faces significant challenges and debate. The cost, route alignment, and location of the Sydney terminus are all contentious issues.
Crossing the Hawkesbury River on a trip to Sydney from the Central Coast, train passengers can see for themselves the mammoth task confronting engineers if a dedicated high-speed rail line through the area ever becomes a reality. The deep expanse of the Hawkesbury, together with national park and hilly terrain, make the stretch between Sydney and Gosford the most difficult – and expensive – of any part of a long-touted high-speed line on Australia’s east coast.
The cost of such a project is staggering, with estimates in 2022 for a dedicated link between Sydney and Gosford alone ranging from $25 billion to $30 billion. Increased construction costs will have since pushed the cost even higher. The latest plans by the federal government are even more ambitious. A high-speed rail line between Newcastle and Sydney would be the first stage of a mega project extending from Brisbane to Melbourne. While the cost will play a key role in government decision-making, the planned alignment of a new line through Sydney is already hotly contested. A site for platforms next to Central Station is being considered. Building a new line to Central Station diverges from plans by the previous NSW Coalition government. And the federal High Speed Rail Authority’s preference for a main station in Sydney’s east has earned the ire of western Sydney councils and lobby groups. “It’s madness to me that we would build infrastructure of the future around a view of Sydney that’s rooted in the past,” Parramatta Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter says. “Central Station is no longer central to where Sydney lives – and it shouldn’t be central to the ambitions we have for high-speed rail.” The previous Coalition state government was on the verge of releasing a detailed plan in 2022 – less than a year before the last NSW election – which proposed a main Sydney station for fast rail at Olympic Par
High-Speed Rail Sydney Gosford Infrastructure Cost
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