A faster rail link to Newcastle must urgently be commenced in New South Wales from Sydney, and to a new interchange should be built at the existing  Tarro station , to utilise the rail connection from Broadmeadows station for passenger transfers to trains to Maitland, the Newcastle airport(line yet to be planned across Hexam bridge), Dungog, Singleton, Scone and the upper Hunter and on to northern NSW  via a Brisbane XPT service to Gloucester, Taree and (Foster/Tuncurry), Casino ,Brisbane and  in addition to Cessnock via a yet to be recommissioned line from Maitland station to Cessnock and new stations yet to be commissioned on the way to Cessnock, Bellbird and to Paxton(Where the Draft Hunter Regional plan 2041, indicates more future residential housing p. 40 on map) . ( Ref. (4) p.120 & p.20.)

The NSW government must start construction of these rail lines to provide connectivity as suggested in the Draft Hunter Regional plan for rail passenger services to Newcastle and Central Coast regions and the Sydney region to the Newcastle Airport Via, A new fast rail link service from Sydney via the Central Coast and, from a new interchange at the Present location of Tarro Station, to accomodation population growth in the region,

The old Bridge accross at Hexam will be the access across the Hunter River to an alignment to the Airport across the Tomago flats only a distance of 16 kilometres to the arrival/departure building at the airport. It is envisaged that the new passenger rail cars for Cessnock and Airport services be purchased and based on the Victorian Railways Sprinter design previously manufactured at the workshops of Commonwealth Engineering workshops at Broadmeadows Newcastle.

With Central Coast and the suburbs of Newcastle growing at an alarming rate, transport planners must attend to the need for mass transport systems in the Hunter and Newcastle regional centres.

The Central Coast has the major transport hub of the Sydney – Newcastle rail link across the Hawksbury River for mass transit to Sydney, and many commuters use this link every day for work, even though there is a link to Newcastle on this line, we have many stations still too short to accommodate the 8 car trains that run on the line and the express trains take too long for an efficient service to Newcastle, where line speeds must be elevated to accommodate this short fall to in speed. (Many Central Coast rail uses would find a rail link to Newcastle airport more convenient than travelling to Mascot airport in Sydney.) Better connectivity between hunter rail services will eliminate hunter Passengers tracing to Morrisett station for a more efficient service from the Hunter to Sydney,

The State declares two regional cities north of Sydney.

In 2021, then NSW State government formed of cities commission in NSW and disbanded it in Jan.  2024, which produced a document “Greater Cities Global Experience 241122, which refers to a faster train between regional cites on page 17 of the dREgional strategy 2041, and connectivity to airports on page 9. 

The State government declared that the Region of The Central Coast be declared a city, in addition that the regional environs of the Newcastle area also were declared a Region City and suitable connectivity between the six cities of the Sydney region outlined by the Cities Commission report 2022/2023.

When considering the Hunter Regional plan 2041, connectivity between these regional cities needs to be maintained and enhanced, with a fast rail service and a connections to a regional airports.

On page 25 of the Draft Central Coast regional plan 2041, it highlights the need for a faster train service to Gosford from Sydney, the recommendation states that a line speed of 250 km/hour be achieved to give a commuter time of 30 minutes to Gosford from Sydney, alternatively, a line speed approaching 200 km/hr. giving commuter times of 1 hour to Gosford, a reasonable compromise for the whole lineto Newcastle, would be from 160 km/h to 200 km/h.

Correspondingly the Hunter Regional Plan 2041, responded to the need for a faster train on Page 57 and 58, by advocating that the Hunter Region should be appropriately connected to its satellite towns, as outlined above.

An airport link from a Central interchange at a new Tarro station proposes a purpose-built station to ensure efficient transfers from the various services to Williamstown Airport, Maitland, Singleton, and Cessnock, and Brisbane, and Foster/Tuncurry and onto the local train to Cessnock and Paxton. 

Current funding

It is understood that some 80 million Dollars of Federal funding has been allocated to this faster train project to accommodate the exponential expansion of the population across the Hunter. Without a project like this the Hunter Regional Road traffic, may become unmanageable and need urgent expansion of its road network, to avoid gridlock during various times of the day.

The M1 extension

Currently the State government has seen that unless the extension of the main M1 was undertaken, an overflow effect of traffic volumes and heavy vehicle volumes would expand into surrounding suburb as traffic volume approaching Hexham Bridge and were creating Hugh delays through Newcastle for vehicles travelling north. This new extension is expected to smooth out this traffic, enabling another crossing of the Hunter River avoiding the bottleneck.

This additional crossing may offer an opportunity to carry a rail line across the Hunter River to the Airport if retrofitted to this new Hunter River crossing Bridge structure or alternatively by utilising the Hexam crossing.

Conclusion

The State Government has identified the need for mass transit in the regions north of Sydney and has acknowledged that it recognises that massive population growth is happening in these Regions by identifying the need for declaring regional Cities, and planning for this expansion, as part of this expansion, traditionally heavy rail has been installed to accommodate commuter traffic, to regional centres, the above plans identify this and must be urgently implemented.

References

(1) The Global Experience of Planning, Preparing and Promoting the Multi-City Region the Greater Cities Commission,2021.

(2) Greater Cities Global Experience 24122, THE Greater CITIES commission,2021.

(1) The Global Experience of Planning, Preparing and Promoting the Multi- City Region (

(3) The Six Cities Discussion Paper, Greater Cities Commission, Sept 2022.

(4) Draft Hunter Regional Plan 2041, Planning, Industry and Environment, 2021

(5) Draft Central Coast Regional Plan 2041, NSW Planning, Industry and Environment, 2021.

(6) the Cities Commission report to parliament 2022/2023.

by

David Holland

B.A.S. Environmental Planning

Grad. Dip Environmental Management.

Master of Environmental Management (Natural Resources)