The Herald revealed final yr the extent of main value blowouts and delays to the practice undertaking, in addition to a scathing evaluation of Transport for NSW’s dealing with of the purchases and infrastructure upgrades needed for them to run on interstate rail traces.
A leaked inner report by Infrastructure NSW, which was labeled as cupboard in confidence, warned in late 2022 that the brand new undertaking was operating 35 months late. The most recent price range papers confirmed that the price has blown out by $826 million to $2.29 billion.
The state authorities’s new trains are being constructed at a producing plant in northern Spain.Credit score: NSW authorities
Aitchison instructed a price range estimates listening to on Thursday that the federal government was “attempting to rescue this undertaking” after the main delays.
The primary of the brand new long-distance trains had been meant to begin carrying passengers in January final yr. Nonetheless, inner forecasts have proven it may very well be as late as December 2025.
Whereas the primary of the 26 trains has arrived in NSW from Spain, Aitchison mentioned vital commissioning and accreditation work needed to be undertaken to allow the fleet to enter service.
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The brand new trains will run on overhead energy wires on higher Sydney’s electrified rail community, and swap to diesel engines once they function on regional and interstate traces. They are going to exchange the Xplorer and Endeavour trains, in addition to the XPT fleet which entered service in 1982.
Aitchison mentioned the so-called bi-mode trains had been extra advanced and must be examined in quite a lot of working circumstances. The primary practice comprising six carriages to reach in NSW is present process an inner fitout at a brand new upkeep facility in-built Dubbo for the fleet.
Drover declined to offer the parliamentary listening to goal dates for the brand new fleet to enter service, including that it was the primary time in Australia that bi-mode trains would function.
Transport for NSW was embroiled in a long-running dispute with the consortium led by Spanish producer CAF over “contentious design adjustments” sought by the company to the trains.
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Senior NSW transport officers had ordered one other raft of design adjustments to the fleet late final yr. Nonetheless, Drover mentioned these modifications had since been retracted.
Aitchison additionally instructed the listening to that the federal government was contemplating plans to increase so-called “Bathurst Bullet” passenger practice providers to Orange however that logistical and scheduling issues must be resolved. “Clearly with the delay of the regional rail fleet … we need to get it proper. We don’t need to put a service in place that we gained’t have the ability to ship later,” she mentioned.
The service runs every day between Bathurst and Sydney.