The Albanese government will spend $80m developing a business case for the Sydney-to-Newcastle stretch of its east coast high speed rail line, as the decades-long project inches further forward.
The transport minister, Catherine King, said the allocation of $78.8m was part of Labor’s $500m election commitment to the early stages of high speed rail, with the initial Sydney-Newcastle leg representing a “crucial waypoint” on the project.
The newly formed High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) will deliver the business case to the government by the end of the year, and will determine a proposed alignment, station locations and the type of train sets to be used.
Imagine how much more a QUOTE could cost if they hadn’t pushed through tax cuts for the mega rich? Or better, imagine how much climate and social housing action they could take with that money. Wait, no, sorry the Labor-Liberal coalition does not imagine. They only make life worse for people dumb enough to vote for them.
But also maybe just fix “work”? If people didn’t have to superfluously travel to a cbd to work many of these transport problems would fade away. Imagine (there’s that word again) if we hyperlocalised our living and responded to the local environment to centre our needs on country. Sorry I’ll stop imagining, the ALP is getting uncomfortable.
At least it’s a train!