Newcastle: the wrong way

In June 1984, the late Premier Wran officially opened rail electrification to Newcastle. This was followed by electrification to Wollongong in  February 1986.

The O'Farrell Government had firm plans to use the proceeds of the Newcastle long term port lease to truncate the Newcastle railway line at Wickham, and to replace it by light rail.

WTC suggests that the Baird Government would do a lot better to instead use the funds to improve the Broadmeadow to Wyong track. One simple strategy would be to revert to the alignment in place in the late 19 th century. As part of a policy to ease the ruling grade facing steam trains, a number of deviations were built.  Three of them from Morisset via Dora Creek to Fassifern involved nearly 3 km of additional length and many tight radius curves.

The 2012 State Infrastructure Strategy urged cutting back Sydney Newcastle train times to two hours.  In 1948, the fastest train took 2hrs 18 minutes, now the fastest takes 2hrs 36 minutes, with the average speed falling to 65 km/h. By way of contrast, Regional Fast Rail in Victoria has slashed times, with the fastest Melbourne to Bendigo train averaging 102 km/h, with even faster trains due on completion by 2015 of the Regional Rail Link project.

A second option for the Baird Government is to share the proceeds of the Newcastle and Port Kembla leases equally - instead of $340m + $100m: $220m for each of Newcastle and Wollongong.

Is it good for Wollongong that Mr. Nick Whitlam chairs the boards of both Port Kembla and Sydney Ports?

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In late February Treasurer Mike Baird and Roads and Ports Minister Duncan Gay announced the appointment of Nicholas Whitlam as Chairman of Sydney Ports Corporation.

This was in addition to his role as Chairman of Port Kembla Port Corporation.

Mr Baird said in a statement  “I’m sure his experience will be invaluable in his new role, as the Government prepares for the long term lease of Port Botany and Port Kembla.” 

In 2003 the NSW Carr Government released a NSW Ports Growth Plan. This set the scene for moving car imports to Port Kembla and an inquiry held by a NSW Legislative Council Committee. Their 2005 Final Report into Port Infrastructure in NSW gave recommendations, including “that the NSW Government consider completion of the Maldon to Dombarton line…”

This report also states  "that a container terminal at Port Kembla could potentially contribute $400 million to the regional economy." In todays terms this is over $500 million.

However, if the NSW Government leases Port Kembla and Port Botany to the same private sector company, there would be a reduced incentive to develop Port Kembla as a container port.

Quite simply, a common owner or leaseholder of both Port Kembla and Port Botany is likely to continue to use Port Botany as a sole container port for as long as possible. In this case, development of Port Kembla to handle containers and completion of Maldon Dombarton would be delayed.

In this case, the promised contribution of $100 million to regional infrastructure should be increased to regional value of a container port at Port Kembla. That is $500 million.