Considering a single apartment unit can cost upwards of $1 million, building an entire rail line between Sydney and Newcastle for $90 billion doesn’t seem too bad.
link871 on
Not going to happen.
VeezusM on
Who wants to go to Newcastle
narmio on
Shit, that’s almost as much as a nuclear submarine!
SirBoboGargle on
Watch Utopia (the very fast train episode) to see how this ends.
count023 on
Is there an elections soon?
verbmegoinghere on
The core reason for the hyper ridiculous price is that land for the stations and track through urban corridors is a prime target for speculators (read absolute dog cunts).
The moment the government announces the path the link will use these bastards will pounce, buying it all up only to hold the government hostage for ridiculous sums of money.
It’s like scalpers buying all the material required to make a hospital but then selling it to the government for a 1000% mark up.
I hope parliament makes a law that anyone who buys land within 12 month of the announcement will only get the value of the land at the previous year’s valuation.
That should stop the fuckers from ruining society.
Gezzaman on
Judging from BoM that took 80m to redesign a webpage , this project will be blown way past the 90b.
koooosa on
Worth it.
It’s the single hardest stretch of the whole eastern seaboard, so it will be expensive.
The economic benefits to the country of the whole project will be astounding. We have to get moving on it.
stamford_syd on
we need to just do it. it has to get done sooner or later so if we don’t do it ASAP you’re just delaying the cost and losing out on all the benefits in the meantime.
willowtr332020 on
Sky News got their numbers right?
$90B at $4.7B per kilometer is 19 kilometers?
Pinkfatrat on
Cheaper than a nuclear sub and will get more use though.
Swimming_Leopard_148 on
As much we all would love high speed rail, multiple reports show that modest improvements to existing lines can improve journey times significantly. Maybe not impressive enough for a minister to announce, but real improvements don’t have to be so expensive
BugKiller on
Easily done. 25% tax on gas exports. Increase mining loyalties. Close IP tax evading profit stealing. Increase tax to 90% for the extremely wealthy.
With all that we could train (no pun intended) a local workforce to build and maintain the system and have a local manufacturing industry supporting it as well.
When that model proves effective do Sydney to Brisbane, rinse repeat for all major cities and major regional centres.
Now to power it we’d build solar /wind/ battery facilities that would power the system and provide regional centres with electricity as a side gig. Those would also need personnel trained and so on and so on….
letterboxfrog on
1/3 of a Sub. Good value
Dark_Headphones on
No matter what the cost is, it’s a shitload cheaper building it now rather than in 10, 20, 40 years. A high speed train is needed from Sydney to Melbourne (and arguably up the east coast) and this is the first step in achieving that. The government needs to bite the bullet and commit. Now is the best time!
brackfriday_bunduru on
There’s zero chance this is ever being built
one234567eights on
Get more mileage from that than the nuclear subs.
A bargain at only one quarter the price!
sunburn95 on
What’s the actual use case of this? People to easily live in Newcastle and commute to Sydney? If you’ve caught hsr around the world youd see it’s too expensive for that
As a Novocastrian I was thinking this might mean Sydneysiders would move here in droves for cheaper living (and better lifestyle 😉), but can it even move that many people per day?
Horatio-Leafblower on
$550 million per kilometre. WTAF
smegblender on
Excellent news.
Decentralising the population centres is absolutely the way to go. Forward thinking infrastructure investments almost always pay dividends in the long term.
This would go a long way in alleviating population pressures on Sydney and make a daily Syd-new castle commute feasible.
Pitiful-Stable-9737 on
Definitely worth it in the long term.
This is just the first leg in the east coast HSR corridor.
And the railway to Newcastle is one of the busiest corridors in the country. It needs a new line anyway. And a good opportunity for Newcastle to develop further.
Pierogi_Bigos on
The public transport is this country is decades behind so many other Western nations. Typical dumb Aussie fuckwit machismo car mentality has been so prevalent
Wow_youre_tall on
Estimate cost $90b
Detailed design $150b
Contract award $220b
Completion cost $340b
DevelopmentLow214 on
China could do it way cheaper and they have 50,000 km of track building experience for delivering on time and within budget.
i_dreddit on
im not an engineer.. but i reckon i could do it for at least 1bn less.. and seeing the different motorway and arterial road projects over the years, i’m sure they’ll only lay one track, and then in 10 years it’ll cost 180bn to duplicate it to 2
MrSweetpotato93 on
Newcastle is lame, respectfully.
Would’ve made more sense to connect Melbourne to Sydney.
Available_Sir5168 on
Opportunity cost, what could we spend $90 Billion on instead of this?
AndySemantic2 on
at 500 bucks a ticket it will pay for itself in no time
eightslipsandagully on
How much is a fare going to cost and how much time will it save? For this price I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
almost_adequate on
Oh, is it election time already?
Ahyao17 on
Is an election coming up?
tibbycat on
Cool. Then do it Sydney to Melbourne.
todaytomato on
is there an election coming soon?
also why newcastle and not canberra?
Original_Giraffe8039 on
Don’t worry…in a few years time it will be 120 billion
breno_mac_ on
Honestly at this point the government should bring in people from either the fast rail in China or JR Rail in Japan to consult on building & operations of a fast train network
37 Comments
That’s a lot of money just to escape Newcastle.
Considering a single apartment unit can cost upwards of $1 million, building an entire rail line between Sydney and Newcastle for $90 billion doesn’t seem too bad.
Not going to happen.
Who wants to go to Newcastle
Shit, that’s almost as much as a nuclear submarine!
Watch Utopia (the very fast train episode) to see how this ends.
Is there an elections soon?
The core reason for the hyper ridiculous price is that land for the stations and track through urban corridors is a prime target for speculators (read absolute dog cunts).
The moment the government announces the path the link will use these bastards will pounce, buying it all up only to hold the government hostage for ridiculous sums of money.
It’s like scalpers buying all the material required to make a hospital but then selling it to the government for a 1000% mark up.
I hope parliament makes a law that anyone who buys land within 12 month of the announcement will only get the value of the land at the previous year’s valuation.
That should stop the fuckers from ruining society.
Judging from BoM that took 80m to redesign a webpage , this project will be blown way past the 90b.
Worth it.
It’s the single hardest stretch of the whole eastern seaboard, so it will be expensive.
The economic benefits to the country of the whole project will be astounding. We have to get moving on it.
we need to just do it. it has to get done sooner or later so if we don’t do it ASAP you’re just delaying the cost and losing out on all the benefits in the meantime.
Sky News got their numbers right?
$90B at $4.7B per kilometer is 19 kilometers?
Cheaper than a nuclear sub and will get more use though.
As much we all would love high speed rail, multiple reports show that modest improvements to existing lines can improve journey times significantly. Maybe not impressive enough for a minister to announce, but real improvements don’t have to be so expensive
Easily done. 25% tax on gas exports. Increase mining loyalties. Close IP tax evading profit stealing. Increase tax to 90% for the extremely wealthy.
With all that we could train (no pun intended) a local workforce to build and maintain the system and have a local manufacturing industry supporting it as well.
When that model proves effective do Sydney to Brisbane, rinse repeat for all major cities and major regional centres.
Now to power it we’d build solar /wind/ battery facilities that would power the system and provide regional centres with electricity as a side gig. Those would also need personnel trained and so on and so on….
1/3 of a Sub. Good value
No matter what the cost is, it’s a shitload cheaper building it now rather than in 10, 20, 40 years. A high speed train is needed from Sydney to Melbourne (and arguably up the east coast) and this is the first step in achieving that. The government needs to bite the bullet and commit. Now is the best time!
There’s zero chance this is ever being built
Get more mileage from that than the nuclear subs.
A bargain at only one quarter the price!
What’s the actual use case of this? People to easily live in Newcastle and commute to Sydney? If you’ve caught hsr around the world youd see it’s too expensive for that
As a Novocastrian I was thinking this might mean Sydneysiders would move here in droves for cheaper living (and better lifestyle 😉), but can it even move that many people per day?
$550 million per kilometre. WTAF
Excellent news.
Decentralising the population centres is absolutely the way to go. Forward thinking infrastructure investments almost always pay dividends in the long term.
This would go a long way in alleviating population pressures on Sydney and make a daily Syd-new castle commute feasible.
Definitely worth it in the long term.
This is just the first leg in the east coast HSR corridor.
And the railway to Newcastle is one of the busiest corridors in the country. It needs a new line anyway. And a good opportunity for Newcastle to develop further.
The public transport is this country is decades behind so many other Western nations. Typical dumb Aussie fuckwit machismo car mentality has been so prevalent
Estimate cost $90b
Detailed design $150b
Contract award $220b
Completion cost $340b
China could do it way cheaper and they have 50,000 km of track building experience for delivering on time and within budget.
im not an engineer.. but i reckon i could do it for at least 1bn less.. and seeing the different motorway and arterial road projects over the years, i’m sure they’ll only lay one track, and then in 10 years it’ll cost 180bn to duplicate it to 2
Newcastle is lame, respectfully.
Would’ve made more sense to connect Melbourne to Sydney.
Opportunity cost, what could we spend $90 Billion on instead of this?
at 500 bucks a ticket it will pay for itself in no time
How much is a fare going to cost and how much time will it save? For this price I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
Oh, is it election time already?
Is an election coming up?
Cool. Then do it Sydney to Melbourne.
is there an election coming soon?
also why newcastle and not canberra?
Don’t worry…in a few years time it will be 120 billion
Honestly at this point the government should bring in people from either the fast rail in China or JR Rail in Japan to consult on building & operations of a fast train network