Work has started on the first stage of a high speed rail on the east coast of Australia.
Australian Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said drilling had begun to determine the best route for a line initially linking the New South Wales Central Coast with Sydney.
She said the line would allow trains to reach the New South Wales state capital in 30 minutes.
Two drill rigs have started work on the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn and at Brisbane Water in Gosford as part of geotechnical investigations to determine the optimum route alignment.
King said the Government was planning for a future high-speed rail network to connect Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and regional communities across the east coast of Australia.
“High-speed rail means generations of new opportunities for regional Australia, creating more jobs in more locations and giving people greater choices in where they live, work, study and play,” King said in a statement.
“Our transformational investment in high-speed rail will help shape Australia for decades to come.”
Australia has been looking at high speed rail since the 1980s with the cost estimated to be in the billions of dollars but so far nothing has been built.
Two drill rigs had started work on the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn and at Brisbane Water in Gosford as part of geotechnical investigations to determine the best route for the line.
The rock and sediment samples will be analysed, with the results helping inform construction methods and key details such as the design and depth of potential rail tunnels.
The geotechnical work – which involves about 27 boreholes in key areas between Newcastle and Sydney – helps with planning for rail tunnel depths, recognising the geological complexities of traversing the escarpment into the Central Coast and on to Sydney and Newcastle.