Australia to spend $80m on business case for Sydney-Newcastle high speed rail

Japan has had fast trains for decades but Australia is still grappling with what kind of trains it will deploy, what routes to take and where to build stations. Photograph: Stefano Politi Markovina/Alamy

The Albanese government will spend $80m developing a business case for the Sydney-to-Newcastle stretch of its east coast high speed rail line, as the decades-long project inches further forward.

The transport minister, Catherine King, said the allocation of $78.8m was part of Labor’s $500m election commitment to the early stages of high speed rail, with the initial Sydney-Newcastle leg representing a “crucial waypoint” on the project.