Claims the proposed $93 billion high-speed rail line from Newcastle to Sydney will result in the construction of up to 104,000 extra homes have been criticised by a leading academic who has questioned the economics of what would be Australia’s biggest infrastructure project.
A 300-page business case for the 194-kilometre rail link was publicly released on Tuesday, outlining plans for 200-metre trains that could travel at up to 320 kilometres per hour. However, the ultimate price tag of the rail line has been redacted from the project’s business case, which includes a warning that “a project of this scale and complexity carries inherent cost overrun risks”.
