The NSW Government has announced they will be investing money in developing a โfast rail corridorโ between Sydney, Goulburn and Canberra if they are to win the 2019 NSW election.
The projectโs NSW funding will come in the form of a $4.6 million allocation from their Snowy Hydro Legacy Fund to investigate four routes, all within 300 km of Sydney.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said they are committed to reducing travel time by 2023.
โWe have already identified parts of the corridor that need upgrading and certain bends that slow everything down.
โWe will see this investment quite early, resulting in the realignment of the track between Canberra to Sydney, and speeds of up to 200km per hour and less than three hoursโ travel time between Sydney and Canberra,โ he said.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said his Government has been โworking closely with our NSW counterparts over the past two years on improvements to the serviceโ, having jointly bid for federal funding for the project.
โEarlier this year, the ACT Government committed up to $5 million in matched funding for business case development on the project, which was matched by NSW Labor.โ
Mr Barr said Government surveys showed 57% of respondents would be more likely to travel via train between Canberra and Sydney if the travel time was between two to three hours.
โWith both major parties in NSW making funding commitments for this work, I call on both major parties at the federal level to also commit to being a funding partner for the Canberra-Sydney faster rail project ahead of the 2019 federal election,โ he said.
โWe look forward to working with the NSW Government in the months ahead on the business case development and, once that work is complete, the speedy implementation of improvements to the service.โ
Mr Barilaro said the NSW Government will fund the design and the work needed to bring the project to a shovel ready stage. โThe NSW Government is prepared to go this alone if need be. We are committed to this and that is the exciting part of this next period,โ he said.
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