The High Speed Rail Authority has started test-drilling 35 metres under Newcastle as it investigates how to build a bullet train to Sydney.
Authority chief executive Tim Parker is in Newcastle this week to inspect a drilling rig next to the existing heavy rail line at Broadmeadow and attend a briefing for the global high-speed rail industry on Tuesday.
Major international rail, infrastructure and design contractors Japan Railways, Siemens, Alstom, Hitachi, Hyundai Rotem, CPB and John Holland will be among about 350 industry representatives in Newcastle for the briefing.
Mr Parker said on Monday that the federal government could be ready to make an investment decision on the multibillion-dollar project by the end of next year.
The Broadmeadow borehole is one of 27 the HSRA is drilling between Sydney and Newcastle to determine how deep tunnels and stations will need to be, how the line will cross the Hawkesbury River and how to traverse the escarpment into the Central Coast and on to Newcastle.
The authority is focusing its investigations on a dedicated line from Broadmeadow to Sydney's Central Station as the first stage of an east coast service connecting Brisbane and Melbourne.
Mr Parker said the geotechnical investigations would help determine if the line would run through tunnels under Newcastle or above ground.
"We see Broadmeadow as really well worth investigating," he said.
"Part of the investigation is what is the ground condition here, which will help inform, if there was a station here, what sort of size the station would be, the form of the station.
"One thing it's very important for us to understand is what are the risks in terms of the scope and the costs of the project, and one of the important parts of that is the geotechnical conditions."
He said the HSRA was "very much focused" on a high-speed rail station at Central "and potentially Parramatta as well".
He said running light rail instead of heavy rail from Broadmeadow to Newcastle West was an "obvious solution", and the HSRA was also investigating rapid buses to Newcastle Airport.
The HSRA is aiming for a one-hour journey from Broadmeadow to Central via the Gosford CBD, though some services could stop at an intermediate station at the southern end of Lake Macquarie.
"We think Gosford at the moment is really important, but one of the things we're looking at is where we could potentially run a two-tier service so there may be some stops where every train will stop but other trains will skip if it's a fast inter-city," Mr Parker said.
"That's why we've been talking to the folks in Lake Macquarie and Maitland to know what are their views."
Newcastle 'anchor station'
A 2013 federal government-commissioned study on high-speed rail recommended a route which skirted Newcastle to the west through Cameron Park.
But Mr Parker said on Monday that the line would pass through Newcastle en route to Brisbane.
"Branch lines don't work. In other words, Newcastle, whether it's Broadmeadow or somewhere else, becomes an anchor station and you actually run through.
"We're still looking at the exact route in and out of Newcastle."
The federal government has committed $500 million to planning and preserving a high-speed rail corridor between Sydney and Newcastle.
The HSRA has engaged contractors KPMG, Ernst & Young, WSP, Arcadis, GHD and Arup to work on the commercial, financing, operational, engineering and other aspects of a final business case due by the end of this year.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said the project had "huge impacts" for developing jobs, housing and other infrastructure in the Hunter.
The estimated cost of the Newcastle-Sydney high-speed line was $18.9 billion in 2013, or more than $26.5 billion in today's dollars, though construction costs have grown well beyond inflation in recent years.
Mr Parker said the business case would compare the cost of high-speed rail with the cost of widening the M1 Pacific Motorway to take more cars and upgrading the existing heavy rail line, which takes 15 million passengers a year.
He said his "ideal" would be to sign the first contracts for high-speed rail in 2027.
"Where we are is an investment decision by the end of next year and a couple of years to do planning approval, then land, then procurement.
"With Sydney Metro we went from investment decision to the first major contract awarded in 18 months.
"We think, with the feedback we're getting from industry, 2027-28 is a great time to be building a big project again, simply because a lot of the other ones are finishing."
