<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> A discussion paper commissioned by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) has claimed that an Australian East Coast high speed rail (HSR) line could be built for just $63 billion â significantly less than previous estimates. </span> <p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif font-size: 10pt line-height: normal">Aurecon undertook desk-top research to support the discussion paper by the Australasian Railway Association (ARA). </span>While low labour costs, cheap land and low relocation costs may be hard to achieve in Australia, Aurecon suggests that an HSR developer could still have a lot to learn from overseas developments.<br /><br />A 2013 report by the Department of Infrastructure & Transport estimated the planned HSR line will cost about $65m per km, resulting in a total cost of roughly $114bn. Another recent estimate, from research group Beyond Zero Emissions, estimated a total cost of just under $80bn, and a per kilometre cost of $43.2m.<br /><br />But Aurecon believes that by taking the lead from international examples, Australia can build its HSR for just $35m per km, or roughly $63bn in total.<br /><br />“Overseas HSR construction costs are generally significantly lower per km than estimates contained in recent studies for HSR in Australia,” the discussion paper says.<br /><br />“This would imply that there are significant opportunities to leverage on overseas construction methodologies and approaches, potentially resulting in significant savings.”<br /><br />China’s recent Beijing-Tianjin HSR and surrounding lines is built at about $23m per km, according to Aurecon.<br /><br />“The standard cost factors influencing China’s price would be the design elements such as type of track (ballast-less track is used on all 350km/h lines), topography and geology along the alignment, land acquisition costs (these would be high in dense urban areas), use of viaducts instead of embankments, the construction of major bridges across wide rivers, and the quantum and size of stations,” the paper says.<br /><br />Chinese companies have demonstrated a willingness to work on HSR lines overseas – Chinese companies were involved in the construction of a Turkish HSR line completed this year, for example – and the discussion paper suggests that potential Chinese and Japanese developers could be pitted against one-another to produce a highly competitive bidding process.<br /><br />“Chinese companies boast that they can build railway lines faster than Japanese companies and for about half the cost.” <br /><br />“The current market competition between Japan and China could be beneficial to an Australian HSR project.”<br /><br />Aurecon also suggests that a good finance deal could be achieved by negotiating with Japanese banks, who currently operate in a negative-interest economy.<br /><br />Australasian Railway Association chief executive Bryan Nye was excited to hear the prospect of a cheaper HSR option for Australia.<br /><br />“$63bn is 45% less than the $114bn price tag put on HSR two years ago,” Nye said. “Prices haven’t come down instead this new $63bn price tag is a reflection of current international construction costs. These costs are why the project needs to be put out to the global market.”<br /><br />Both sides of Parliament seem interested in developing the HSR line, with both minister and shadow minister for infrastructure, Warren Truss and Anthony Albanese, speaking at the HSR Forum.<br /><br />“Government commitment to the project is needed first, followed by the establishment of a body to oversee the project and then opening Australia’s HSR project to the market,” Nye said.<br /><br />“Let’s put the project out to our overseas colleagues, in Europe, Japan and China. They have the experience, let’s allow them to show us how to fund, construct and operate HSR in Australia.</p><p>The discussion paper can be found on the ARA website <a href="http://www.ara.net.au/UserFiles/file/Publications/14-10-27%20REPORT-The-Potential-Impacts-of-High-Speed-Rail-to-Eastern-Australia%20(1).pdf"><strong>HERE</strong></a></p>
