Bungled NSW train project risks running later than worst-case scenario

The state’s new multibillion-dollar fleet of long-distance passenger trains is at risk of missing the worst-case scenario of the first train entering service by this December, which would leave the bungled project more than three years late.

With testing of the first train on the rail network having started in late February, senior transport officials concede the trials will take “many, many months” but have declined to reveal when they expect it to enter passenger service.

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

The trains will also have to receive approval from the national rail safety regulator before they can start carrying passengers.

Under questioning from Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, Transport for NSW deputy secretary Camilla Drover acknowledged at a budget estimates hearing that there had been “significant delays” to the new train fleet.

She declined to commit to a date for the first train entering service because it would depend on the testing over coming months. “I’m not willing to commit to a hard and fast date,” she said.

“I can’t magic up a date where we’re going to be through the dynamic testing process because there’s a whole series of tests we have to undertake. The train will fail some of those tests, I imagine – they always do.”

The trains were ordered by the previous Coalition government for key interstate rail lines from Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as for services to regional centres in NSW. Under original plans, the first train was meant to enter service in January 2023.

The cost of the new trains blew out by $826 million to $2.29 billion in 2023 following a long-running dispute with a consortium led by Spanish manufacturer CAF, which is building the fleet. An internal assessment was also scathing of Transport for NSW’s handling of the project, highlighting “poor scoping, cost overruns, schedule delays and unmitigated risks”.

The highly confidential report by Infrastructure NSW several years ago revealed that the project team developed a range of dates for the first passenger service that it considered “optimistic”, “realistic” and “pessimistic”. Under the worst-case scenario, the first train would enter passenger service this December.

Three of the 29 new trains have arrived in NSW from Spain, while transport officials expect up to six more to be shipped later this year.

Transport for NSW deputy secretary Camilla Drover.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The project has missed the optimistic and realistic scenarios of last September and last December, respectively, for the first passenger service.

As part of the so-called dynamic testing, the trains will first be tested on Sydney’s electrified rail network, followed by lines across the state and to Melbourne and Brisbane using diesel engines.

“It is a long and complex process. It’s a bi-mode train so we need to test them both on the electrified network and also on the non-electrified, where they run under diesel power,” Drover said.

“As we test, there will be issues identified. They may require fixes in some instances, but we’re not going to hurry the process. [Testing] is going to be many, many months – it’s not a matter of weeks.”

A commercial process to resolve the dispute between the government and the CAF-led consortium over design changes, which were sought by Transport for NSW, is running in parallel with arbitration before the courts.

“That preparation for that arbitration process is occurring, but the matter has not been heard in the courts yet, other than preliminary hearings,” Drover said.

Transport for NSW has based representatives in Spain to deal with the new fleet, while Drover said some engineers have been flown to Europe for specialist testing activities “from time to time”.

Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said it was a “very complicated” project and one that the previous government failed to deliver in eight years in terms of getting trains on tracks.

“One thing I don’t want to do is to be making commitments about time frames,” she told the hearing.

The project delay has forced the Minns government to extend the working life of the state’s decades-old XPT passenger trains, which the new Spanish-built fleet was purchased to replace. The $40 million upgrade to the XPT fleet is due to start this month and take about a year to complete.

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