Gladys Berejiklian’s high speed train project may cost $100 billion

A high speed rail project Premier Gladys Berejiklian has committed to start work on if she wins the state election could cost $100 billion, with a similar project in the UK raking up the eye-watering amount. SEE WHAT IT MAY LOOK LIKE.

• We’ve waited four decades for high speed rail
• Sydney to Canberra in an hour: NSW’s fast rail plan

A high speed rail project Premier Gladys Berejiklian has committed to start work on if she wins the state election could cost $100 billion, with a similar project in the UK raking up the eye-watering amount.

High Speed 2 will connect eight large cities across England with trains reaching speeds of up to 400km/h.

It is currently under construction but has attracted a price tag of about £55 billion ($A100 billion) with the cost blowing out from much lower estimates in 2010.

Gladys Berejiklian has promised a fast rail network if she wins the state election. Picture John Grainger

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Committee for Sydney Director of Advocacy James Hulme said the UK rail project was comparable to the network being considered by the state government.

“A reasonable figure would be $100 billion in Australian dollars to build it,” Mr Hulme said.

“It’s a long-term project, High Speed 2 is going on for the best part of a decade so it’s certainly looking at something quite far in the future, but it does make sense to plan these things far in advance and perhaps we suffered in the past from not having these long-term infrastructure plans.”

An artist’s impression of what the light rail trains could look like. Picture: Supplied

The government has found four possible routes that will connect Sydney to a number of cities. Picture: Supplied

Mr Hulme said if the government opted for a slower version of high speed rail the price would be lower.

Professor Andrew McNaughton — an adviser on the HS2 project — has been recruited to lead the feasibility study to determine the route, speed, station locations and when construction should start.

Ms Berejiklian announced yesterday that the government would spend $4.6 million investigating four possible high speed rail routes that stretched to Canberra, Goulburn, Newcastle, Gosford, Wollongong and Nowra.

The project could cost an eye-watering $100 billion. Picture: Supplied

High speed rail would cut the commute time between Sydney and Canberra from over four hours to just one.

A report by the Committee for Sydney concluded that creating a greater ­connection between Sydney and these regional centres would lead to $75 billion in “housing affordability improvements”.

Ms Berejiklian said there was no price tag or time frame on the project but work would commence in her next term of government.

Building a high speed rail network along the east coast has been proposed repeatedly — but Ms Berejiklian maintains her government would see this latest iteration of the idea through.