Faster Rail

The July agenda paper for Neighbourhood Forum 5 that operates under the auspices of Wollongong City Council noted in part that on 21 June, the NSW Treasurer delivered the state budget, which includes “a record $112.7 billion investment in infrastructure over the next four years. This includes $76.7 billion for transformative transport infrastructure…”.

The 36 page overview notes inter alia $274.5 million to continue planning of the Fast Rail program to deliver faster connections between Sydney, Canberra, Bomaderry, Newcastle, the Central Coast and the Central West which is NSW and Commonwealth Government-funded.

Most of this limited funding, which is dwarfed by an extra $5 billion to complete the Sydney and South West Metro will go to the Sydney Newcastle line.

A $16 million business case to investigate faster rail options from Sydney to Wollongong (and onto Bomaderry), cofunded by the Australian and NSW government was completed in March 2021.

To quote from the Australian Governments Faster Rail booklet “The current quality of the rail service in the Sydney to Wollongong corridor reflects a range of operational and infrastructure constraints including the Illawarra Escarpment and the single track Coalcliff Tunnel. Uncompetitive rail services add to congestion on roads linking Sydney and Wollongong. …Improved rail services have the potential to improve accessibility to the Sydney employment market from Wollongong, which has above average unemployment, and where a substantial percentage of the population travels to Sydney for work. Currently, approximately 17 per cent of the local population travel to Sydney to work.” The vulnerability of Wollongong to being cut off from most external access makes imperative the requirement for a more secure, more frequent rail service to Sydney.

As noted by Paul Scully MP in commenting on the 2022 NSW Budget, in 2019, the NSW Government commissioned the McNaughton Report on fast rail in NSW. This report remains secret despite his efforts to have it made public. The 2022 NSW budget included an allocation for faster rail along several routes in NSW, including through to Bomaderry, but did not provide any further project details. Mr Scully is seeking further details from the Government about what, if anything, this might mean for travel time and service frequency on the South Coast Line.

At its July 6 meeting, Neighbourhood Forum 5 thanked Mr Scully for this, and asked him to also seek the release of the report completed in March 2021 on improving South Coast travel times, and if we can have off peak trains to Sydney every half hour (like Newcastle has had for years) rather than every hour, prior to the major international cycle event in September 2022 to be held in Wollongong. 

The Forum also noted that the Leader of the Opposition Mr Minns in his budget report of 23 June did not raise the issue of improving regional rail, and has written to Mr Ryan Park, requesting a statement from either Mr Minns or the Shadow Minister for Regional Transport (Ms Jenny Aitchison), as to how a NSW ALP government if elected in March 2023 would provide for more and faster South Coast trains.

Wollongong Council’s Neighbourhood Forum 5 calls for another look at completing Maldon Dombarton

The May agenda papers for this forum notes that the Maldon-Dombarton rail link is a 35 kilometre partly completed freight line.  In 2014, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) prepared a business case for its completion, but this received in 2016-17 an adverse Project Business Case evaluation by Infrastructure Australia. 

The heavy rains in March and April 2022 have led to impacts on the South Coast line, around Otford requiring the extended cancellation of some passenger trains and replacement by buses between Waterfall and Thirroul. The line was recently closed to allow essential maintenance.

The Moss Vale Unanderra line which is now part of the Interstate Network managed by Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) was closed for routine maintenance for two days in January 2022 is understood to now require further maintenance to deal with the recent heavy rains. In normal times freight trains that use the Moss Vale Unanderra line could be diverted to the South Coast line. However, with problems on the South Coast line, this is not so easy. 

The recent rains highlight the capacity and other constraints on the South Coast and Moss Vale Unanderra lines, and demonstrate the desirability of completing the Maldon Dombarton link. 

At is May 2022 on line meeting, the Forum resolved to request the Paul Scully MP and Ryan Park MP to seek from the NSW Government an undertaking that the 2014 Business case for completion of the Maldon Dombarton rail link will be updated as a matter of urgency, and that the updated business case is to address the value of the new link when the South Coast line and or the Moss Vale Unanderra line is closed due to weather or other events. 

The Forum is awaiting advice from TfNSW via our local members.

https://wollongong.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/161704/NF5-Minutes-4-May-2022.pdf