HSRA Shortlists Six Consortia for Sydney-Newcastle High-Speed Rail Trains and Tunnels

Australia's High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) has shortlisted six international consortia to begin early contractor involvement (ECI) on the proposed 320 km/h Newcastle-Sydney line, the country's first high-speed rail project.

For the Trains, Systems & System Integration package, HSRA selected an Alstom/UGL joint venture, a Siemens Mobility-Mott MacDonald grouping trading as ARC Joint Venture, and Hitachi Rail STS Australia. The three will refine designs for a fleet capable of cutting the Sydney-Newcastle journey to around an hour.

For tunnelling and construction on Area Package 1 - the roughly 35km twin-tunnel section between Berowra and Ourimbah, which includes the planned Central Coast station at Gosford - HSRA shortlisted an Acciona/John Holland joint venture, an Advanced Alliance grouping of Gamuda, FCC and Samsung C&T, and a GoFar joint venture of CPB Contractors, Ferrovial and VINCI.

The announcements, made August 19, kick off a competitive ECI process intended to mature designs, costs and approvals using proven rail technology rather than a bespoke system, ahead of a government decision on whether to proceed to construction.

The selections follow HSRA's earlier appointment of Bechtel as delivery partner and a Keolis-SNCF-Certifer consortium as build-operate-maintain advisor for the same corridor.