Uncomfortable, over budget, running late: Big problems for state’s new trains

Sleeper carriages have been ruled out for NSW’s fleet of new long-distance trains, which is $826 million over budget and running more than three years late, leaving passengers stuck with “premium” recliner seats for 14-hour journeys.

After a long-running dispute with the private consortium building the passenger trains in northern Spain, the state Labor government said it was “trying to rescue” the botched rail project.

The trains were ordered by the previous Coalition government for key interstate rail lines from Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, as well as for services to regional centres in NSW.

An artist’s impression of the new Spanish-built trains that will run on interstate rail lines.Credit: Transport for NSW

Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said the previous government had decided against ordering sleeper carriages for the new fleet, which would have been “exorbitantly expensive”, and other options were now under consideration.

The Rail Tram and Bus Union has been urging the government to arrange for a local manufacturer to design and build new sleeper carriages compatible with the new trains. A one-way trip from Sydney to Brisbane is 14 hours, while a journey to Melbourne is about 10 hours.

Transport for NSW deputy secretary Camilla Drover said the new fleet would include “premium” recliner seats, and the agency was working with NSW TrainLink to look at what could be done with the state’s existing trains which did have sleeper carriages.

“We won’t be modifying the new regional fleet to accommodate sleeper cars,” she said.

Compartments in XPT train carriages, which have been servicing long-distance routes for decades, contain two single beds and have access to a shared bathroom and shower.

The Herald revealed last year the extent of major cost blowouts and delays to the train project, as well as a scathing assessment of Transport for NSW’s handling of the purchases and infrastructure upgrades necessary for them to run on interstate rail lines.

A leaked internal report by Infrastructure NSW, which was classified as cabinet in confidence, warned in late 2022 that the new project was running 35 months late. The latest budget papers confirmed that the cost has blown out by $826 million to $2.29 billion.

The state government’s new trains are being built at a manufacturing plant in northern Spain.Credit: NSW government

Aitchison told a budget estimates hearing on Thursday that the government was “trying to rescue this project” after the major delays.

The first of the new long-distance trains were meant to start carrying passengers in January last year. However, internal forecasts have shown it could be as late as December 2025.

While the first of the 26 trains has arrived in NSW from Spain, Aitchison said significant commissioning and accreditation work had to be undertaken to enable the fleet to enter service.

The new trains will run on overhead power wires on greater Sydney’s electrified rail network, and switch to diesel engines when they operate on regional and interstate lines. They will replace the Xplorer and Endeavour trains, as well as the XPT fleet which entered service in 1982.

Aitchison said the so-called bi-mode trains were more complex and would have to be tested in a variety of operating conditions. The first train comprising six carriages to arrive in NSW is undergoing an internal fitout at a new maintenance facility built in Dubbo for the fleet.

Drover declined to provide the parliamentary hearing target dates for the new fleet to enter service, adding that it was the first time in Australia that bi-mode trains would operate.

Transport for NSW was embroiled in a long-running dispute with the consortium led by Spanish manufacturer CAF over “contentious design changes” sought by the agency to the trains.

Senior NSW transport officials had ordered another raft of design changes to the fleet late last year. However, Drover said those modifications had since been retracted.

Aitchison also told the hearing that the government was considering plans to extend so-called “Bathurst Bullet” passenger train services to Orange but that logistical and scheduling matters would have to be resolved. “Obviously with the delay of the regional rail fleet … we want to get it right. We don’t want to put a service in place that we won’t be able to deliver later,” she said.

The service runs daily between Bathurst and Sydney.

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