The Australian federal government has committed a further $230 million to planning a high-speed rail line between Newcastle and Sydney via the Central Coast, moving the ambitious tunnel dream closer to reality.
爆料王 experts have weighed in on the latest development in the government鈥檚 desire to be 鈥渟hovel-ready鈥 within two years.
Who benefits from high-speed rail in Australia
鈥淭his is just a commitment to planning, not to construction, which would cost several orders of magnitude more,鈥 said , Senior Lecturer in Transport and Logistics Management at the Business School鈥檚 Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies.
鈥淎 high-speed rail link between Newcastle and Sydney is a great opportunity to create more residential land and job opportunities in the Hunter region. It would enable many more people to move beyond Sydney if the commute were cut to just one hour.鈥
, Professor of Transport in the Faculty of Engineering鈥檚 School of Civil Engineering, said: 鈥淪ydney to Newcastle is one of the smallest markets for high-speed rail in the world.鈥
How much would high-speed rail cost
Professor Levinson said: 鈥淭he Sydney-Newcastle link, if actually built at the A$90 billion price point, would be roughly 1.8 to 2.3 times more expensive per kilometre than an? operational segment of the California High-Speed Rail (Bakersfield to Madera) currently under construction.
鈥淭his is largely driven by the requirement for 115km of tunnelling, making it one of the most expensive proposed rail projects in the world on a per-kilometre basis.鈥
Dr Clifton said: 鈥淲e need to be careful we鈥檙e getting value for money. We鈥檝e seen megaprojects go well over the expected amount, so it鈥檚 highly likely we鈥檒l see costs overrun.鈥
How are infrastructure megaprojects funded
鈥淭raditionally a rail project for one state would be funded by that state, but the federal government would be treating this as the first stage of an east coast high-speed rail network eventually linking to Canberra, Melbourne and maybe Brisbane,鈥 Dr Clifton said.
鈥淭he project is likely to draw on a mix of public and private funding. We expect big investors including superannuation funds would be interested in investing in projects such as this.鈥
Manual Name : David Levinson
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Sydney-Newcastle $93b high-speed rail plan 鈥榝ar-fetched鈥
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Read Professor David Levinson's comments in The Australian Financial Review
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