High Speed Rail Authority .

Anyone who’s paid attention to the central coast / Newcastle / north of Sydney over the last few decades would probably emit a groan when they hear mentions of a high speed or very high speed rail .

it’s been floated in the past by many different people including Albo when in opposition

What I hadn’t realised is that a high speed rail act (22 ) and subsequently a High Speed Rail Authority June 23 have been set up .

First annual report due in June this year .

Labor obviously are taking it seriously as their first step is too see any impact it might have on the First Nation's Community .

I picked up on this when I did some searches after getting a fb add predicting that Gosford would be the next Sunshine Coast , yeah …..

The high speed rail would use current tracks and have speeds up to 250 and the section between Sydney and Newcastle is the first targeted section
and it would go into central Sydney .

Cutting the train trip from Gosford from 90 to 30 minutes would be a game changer for the central coast .

The coast already has upmarket , multimillion dollar areas in Pearl Beach , Terrigal , any of the coastal beach suburbs , Hardy’s bay / Waterfront any where up there , but a 30 minute trip to the Center of Sydney from a laid back coastal area is a lay down card hand in my books .

Is it just a vapour track ?

Logic says not . Lots of undeveloped land on the CC and in terms of natural attractions its beautiful area .

The VFT ( bullet train speeds ) is a suggested next step coming from Brisbane . No central Sydney stop . Stops at parramatta linking up to the Metro and would be on its own , new track . If that happened , it would be the biggest infrastructure build in Oz .

Big discussion for that would be path . Coastal , inland , where would it stop ?

Cheers

cliff

 

I'd say that the business case which runs to the CBD would be dead in the water but to a Parramatta junction would fly. Plenty of room for additional tracks in the rail corridor as well without the need for additional land acquisition.

I'll keep my eyes open but I won't hold my breath.

 

i wish! i am bullish on cc long term. there is no point living in west when u can live in cc with better amenities and nicer lifestyle - IF you can get to work in same/similar time frames.

re trains - it will happen for sure, question is when. They would probably try indeed to push it to epping only or to paramata if this area will get all the bank sector main offices - but it really depends on the "back to office" movement.

 

They'll probably spend the next 20 years discussing it

 

Always think of this when I hear about high speed rail.

 

Not going to happen. Governments love doing feasibility studies because it gets nice headlines and allows them to generate some excited discussions. In fact it has been pretty much 'under investigation' by every government for the last 40 years. The costs just don't stack up - Australia is too low density for the vast majority of the track.

High-speed rail in Australia - Wikipedia

 

Isn't that why it works? You join a handful of centres where there's a larger population base not dozens of stops where no-one lives ie Newcastle, CC, Parramatta, Wollongong, Canberra, Albury, Shepparton, Melbourne.

Too many stops slow the trip and defeats the purpose.

 

It's the distance between each centre that kills it though. Look at Japan, which while still very expensive is probably the best functioning HSR. On one 400km or so stretch of rail you can link most of their biggest cities - Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka etc. And Japan is 5x the population of Australia. Same with Europe - the average difference between centres is a lot smaller.

The distance between Brisbane and Sydney is more like 750km with another 700km or so to Melbourne. Sure Newcastle and Canberra etc are closer but they are tiny in the scheme of things - the population is just too small to justify the cost.

 

The other thing people conviently forget when making comparisons with Japan is what a ticket costs to travel on those services without being a tourist carrying a JR rail pass.

I think the stereotypical high speed rail people imagine will never be viable in Australia (in my lifetime anyway).
A 'quick rail' with minimal stops and some decent frequency would be a decent compromise however.

 

There was a proposal that some minor tweaks to the existing rail line between Sydney and Melbourne could cut travel time from eleven to six hours. I think that I've posted this before.

Sydney-Melbourne railway could be affordably upgraded to slash travel times to six hours, expert says | Australia news | The Guardian

 

And a train between Tokyo to Kyoto departs around every 8 minutes. Australia can't do anywhere near that frequency due to a lack of population.

 

it wont be profitable from day 1, sure. but if we want to solve our housing crisis, trully, long term, thenwe must build enough convinience for people to not live in sydbourne

 

I think the way is up.... Build more apartments and also have infrastructure to suit. Tokyo region has 40 million people and the city functions. There are so many metro services going in all directions and it helps that people are so polite.... love the queuing at the underground... it's just so orderly and that metro trains come every 2 minutes or so.

People don't want to travel long distances... and people still love their cars to go to places. You can't use rail to conveniently get everywhere in Sydney unfortunately. Some places are just too hard. If I want to get to Canterbury from Epping by rail, I have to go to Redfern and then head back out (south) west! Otherwise train to Burwood plus a substantial bus ride. If it was Tokyo, it would be a breeze...

 

I've found that cities with a good public transportation system, it will often be easier to get into the centre or CBD than it is to travel between neighbouring suburbs. That's what Melbourne's Suburban Rail Loop is meant to fix.

I haven't been to Tokyo, but the metro map looks a lot more complicated than London's, so it might be better connected.

I'd agree that higher density is a good idea, but European cities will mix terraces with low-rise apartments, rather than the enormous apartment blocks and towers that Australia favours.

 

The resistance to too much high rise is fairly strong and the cost of building adequate public transport in Sydney is too higher .

would probably be better to have fast train it 3-4 stops up to Newcastle’s and then medium density around those with very good parking around the station .
With the medium density they could have reasonable public spaces without creating high density ghettos on the coast . Three very well planned city’s on the coast between Newcastle and Gosford . Maybe a high rise precinct around Gosford

 

they’ve already been discussing it since ? the Whitlam era so that’s around fifty years …

 

And it's taken how long to decide on Badgerys Creek?

 

touche! i had no idea... 50 years+...

Second Sydney Airport - Wikipedia

 

Galston.... would have been handy as a Northern Sydneysider. But I'm sure there would be so many NIMBY complaints....