00:02The Federal Government says it wants to get the high speed rail project between Newcastle
00:06and Sydney shovel ready.
00:07Today it's committed $230 million for the detailed design phase.
00:12That includes working out where exactly the track will go, where tunnels will go, where
00:17the stations will go and understanding the cost of that.
00:20Engineers will be involved to make sure they can nail down that cost.
00:24At the moment it's understood the project is likely to cost about $55 billion between
00:30Sydney and Newcastle.
00:31If the track was extended out to Western Sydney, Parramatta and the new airport, that cost would
00:36push out to about $70 to $90 billion.
00:39Now at the moment if you jump on a train here and go to Sydney, an all stations stop train
00:45is about two and a half to three hours.
00:48High speed rail would cut that down to about an hour.
00:52If you got on at the Central Coast it would be half an hour to Sydney or half an hour
00:56from the Central Coast to Newcastle.
00:58So a big difference for commuters, particularly when you're travelling for work both ways each
01:04day an hour is much quicker and using your day a bit more efficiently than having to get
01:09on the train for two and a half or possibly three hours.
01:13So over the next couple of years the Government is going to be looking at the exact design for
01:19this project.
01:21People might say, why not use the tracks that are in place?
01:24That's not possible.
01:25A high speed rail needs to be a lot more direct.
01:29Those tracks need to be a lot straighter.
01:32The current track, train track is a lot bendier so a new track needs to be installed so a lot
01:38of work needs to be involved to look at that exact design to get that high speed train on
01:43the track.
01:44Now the Government has said during this phase they'll be looking at public and private financing
01:50so in a couple of years this project is ready to go and if the project is ready to go
01:56and
01:56funding is in place the Government has said that 2029 is a possible time when construction
02:02could start.
02:03That's a good point.
02:05That's a good point.
02:05That's a good point.
02:05That's a good point.
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