Major injection for urban passenger rail

The Australasian Railway Association’s (ARA) chief executive Bryan Nye said the Government has recognised the “vital role” that rail plays in Australia’s economy by investing $4.6 billion in passenger rail infrastructure projects, announced in the Federal budget on May 12th.

By Jennifer Perry
 

With the budgetary spend primarily focused on tackling urban congestion, lifting national productivity and reducing carbon pollution, Nye said that the Government has done “the right thing” by ensuring rail is part of the solution to the challenges Australia currently faces.
The Federal budget marked the release of Infrastructure Australia’s (IA) National Infrastructure Priority List, which included nine ‘priority’ projects and six ‘pipeline’ projects to be funded from the Building Australia Fund (BAF).
Deloitte’s infrastructure leader, corporate finance partner Roger Black said that it is vital that IA now embarks on a program of actively promoting and mandating a “nationally consistent” approach to delivery.
Black believes that IA’s role to encourage on-time and on-budget delivery of infrastructure ought to be mandated by making the provision of funding conditional on State’s signing up to a consistent national approach, with strong reliance on partnerships between public and private sectors.
“Without at least the examination of a partnership with the private sector regarding the delivery of infrastructure projects, it is likely that the fragmented approach across the States will continue,” he said.
Nye believes it is now time for the Federal Government to set up a “National Infrastructure Coordinator” with powers over the State and Local Governments to “ensure the projects are rapidly implemented.
“We can no longer afford the delays caused by the myriad of planning approvals and delays at local levels,” he said.
While it may appear that freight rail took a backstage to passenger rail in new spending initiatives, Nye said that the rail industry has already received the Federal funding for freight rail that it asked for.
In the December stimulus package, rail gained an extra $1.2 billion to go to the Australian Rail track Corporation (ARTC), with the funds being used to upgrade the Hunter’s coal export chain as well as improving major sections of the interstate rail network.
There are a number of freight rail projects already flagged under the existing $26.7 billion Nation Building Program, which include a freight rail corridor from Strathfield to Hornsby; rail access and capacity improvements across several regions, and upgrades at Geelong Port in Victoria.
“The next stage is for us to lobby the Federal Government to make sure stage two ($1.5 billion) and three ($3.5 billion) of the Northern Sydney freight corridor happens and funding for improvements to the East West rail corridor become a reality,” said Nye.
“We need a modern freight network linking all our capitals as a matter of priority. It is not a nice ‘to do’ project but a must for our economic survivability,” he said.

Details of IA ‘priority’ and ‘pipeline’ rail projects
The five rail projects for priority spending are:
.Regional Rail Express in Victoria – $3.2 billion: construction expected to commence in 2010 and scheduled for completion in 2014
.Gawler Rail Line Modernisation in South Australia – $293.5 million: construction expected to commence in 2010 and scheduled for completion in 2013
.Noarlunga to Seaford Rail Extension in South Australia – $291.2 million: construction expected to commence in 2010 and scheduled for completion in 2013
.Gold Coast Light Rail in Queensland – $365 million: construction expected to commence in 2011 and scheduled for completion in 2013
.East-West Rail Tunnel – Preconstruction Work in Victoria – $40 million: construction expected to commence in 2012 and scheduled for completion in 2018
The three ‘pipeline’ rail projects are:
.Northbridge Rail Link, Perth (the Hub) – $236 million: construction expected to start in 2009 and scheduled for completion in 2014
.West Metro Preconstruction Work inSydney – $91million: cash to advance the West Metro project to the next stage
.Brisbane Inner City Rail Feasibility Study to determine potential route alignment, construction timetables and preferred funding model – $20million

IA’s National Priorities Report can be downloaded at: http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au

For detailed reports on the rail projects that made IA’s National Infrastructure Priority List see upcoming editions of Rail Express.