Three consortia selected to develop Newcastle–Sydney high-speed rail tunnel designs

newy.com.au – Three major construction groups have been shortlisted for a paid competition to design and price about 35 kilometres of twin tunnels on the proposed Newcastle to Sydney high-speed rail line.

The announcement is a significant planning step, but it is not approval to build the railway and does not cover the Newcastle end of the route.

The Acciona John Holland Joint Venture, Advanced Alliance Joint Venture and GoFar Joint Venture will take part in an Early Contractor Involvement process for the section between Berowra and Ourimbah, known as Area Package 1.

Advanced Alliance includes Gamuda Engineering, FCC Construction Australia and Samsung C&T Corporation. GoFar brings together CPB Contractors, Ferrovial Construction Australia and VINCI Construction Grands Projets Australia.

The package includes twin tunnels built using tunnel boring machines, ventilation shafts, refuge facilities, tracks and railway systems, associated surface works and the proposed Central Coast high-speed rail station at Gosford.

It is a difficult section to design and build because the proposed corridor must negotiate the Hawkesbury River, hilly terrain and environmentally sensitive national park areas north of Sydney.

The High Speed Rail Authority has divided the proposed Newcastle to Sydney Central line into five geographical packages. Its published April 2026 package structure is:

The package numbers are contracting labels rather than an opening timetable. Planning and procurement for different sections can overlap. The Authority said in April that, because of the project’s length and complexity, delivery would generally be staged from north to south.

The geographical packages include station work and the installation of tracks and railway systems within each section. A separate Trains, Systems and System Integration contract covers the trains and the design, integration, testing and maintenance of the system as a whole.

Under the Early Contractor Involvement model, the three shortlisted groups will be paid to develop competing designs instead of working from a completed government reference design. The Authority’s April briefing described the arrangement as fee-for-service, with payments capped at each stage and overall.

The groups will produce designs, construction programs and final priced submissions. Draft contracts with preferred contractors will then help inform the Australian Government’s investment decision.

One of the three groups could eventually be selected to construct the Berowra to Ourimbah package, but only if the government decides to proceed. No major construction contract has been awarded.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said: “The three consortia will determine the best and most innovative ways to drive tunnels between Berowra and Ourimbah, while ensuring Australians get value for money.”

King said in February that the government was aiming for a final investment decision in late 2028 and hoped the project could then be ready for construction in 2029. She also said a construction timetable could not be produced until the detailed design work was completed.

There is therefore no confirmed construction starting date or completion date.

The business case modelled services between Broadmeadow and the Central Coast beginning in 2037, followed by the connection to Sydney Central in 2039. Those dates are planning assumptions from the business case, not committed opening dates.

The present development phase covers the proposed line from Broadmeadow to Sydney Central, with stations at Broadmeadow, Morisset, Gosford and Central. Extending the railway through Parramatta to Western Sydney International Airport would require a separate development phase.

The High Speed Rail Authority says the dedicated line is designed to reduce travel between Newcastle and Sydney to about one hour, with journeys from the Central Coast to either city taking about 30 minutes.

The business case provides for trains travelling at up to 320km/h on surface and elevated sections and up to 200km/h inside tunnels.

The high-speed railway would be separate from the existing Newcastle and Central Coast line. The existing railway would continue carrying local and intercity passengers and freight.

The Authority’s April 2026 industry overview said the existing corridor carried almost 15 million passenger journeys a year and was forecast to reach capacity in the early 2040s. The current line has a winding alignment and carries a mixture of local, intercity and freight services.

The Commonwealth has allocated $659.6 million for the two-year development phase. The money covers detailed design, planning and environmental approvals, cost and scope work and investigations into possible public and private financing.

It is development funding, not funding to construct the railway.

The eventual construction cost remains uncertain. King publicly described the Broadmeadow to Sydney Central stages in February as costing about $55 billion, including trains, stations and signalling.

However, the business case released at the same time contained a higher, risk-adjusted P90 estimate of $61.2 billion for those stages.

The business case estimated that extending the line through Parramatta to Western Sydney International Airport would cost another $32.4 billion, taking the published P90 estimate for the complete first stage to $93.6 billion.

The contractor process is intended to produce more detailed and reliable cost estimates before the government decides whether to proceed.

Infrastructure Australia warned that the large amount of tunnelling and the new railway systems meant costs could change considerably. It said it could not confidently assess the project’s benefit-cost ratio until cost certainty improved.

Its assessment placed the benefit-cost ratio for the complete first stage between 0.8 and 1.05. A figure below one means the measured costs are greater than the measured benefits. Infrastructure Australia said benefits exceeded costs only under low-cost, high-benefit scenarios that included wider economic and land-use benefits.

It also had low confidence that all the forecast housing benefits would be achieved. Land-use changes accounted for 58 per cent of the benefits claimed in the economic assessment.

Environmental approvals remain outstanding. Infrastructure Australia said the proposed alignment for the complete first stage would traverse nine national parks, four nature reserves, two regional parks, one state conservation area and one state forest, although tunnelling would reduce surface impacts in many locations.

It also said construction of the complete first stage was estimated to generate almost 3.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The assessment found the project would produce a net increase in emissions over the appraisal period and recommended further environmental and emissions work.

The government also proposes an advanced manufacturing facility using automation, robotics and precision manufacturing to produce railway components more efficiently. King said in February that she hoped it could be established in Newcastle, but its location, budget and number of jobs have not been confirmed.

High-speed rail on Australia’s east coast has been investigated repeatedly since the 1980s. The current proposal has progressed further than many earlier plans, with a dedicated authority, a released business case, ground investigations, development funding and contractors now being brought into the design process.

But the main questions remain unresolved: what the final railway will cost, how construction would be funded and whether the government will approve it after the development phase.