Decades worth of NSW trains could be built in the Hunter under a $12 billion state government plan for a passenger train manufacturing pipeline centred on the region.
The investment, to be announced today, is for a state-owned train factory in the region operated by a private manufacturer.
The eventual site is expected to employ 780 workers during construction, and create 550 ongoing jobs, the government said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the plan would provide long-term certainty for the industry to invest, train apprentices and strengthen supply chains in NSW, contending it will "anchor more than 30 years of train manufacturing in the Hunter".
"The truth is, to keep our trains running, we're going to need a whole new fleet of them soon," Mr Minns will tell Labor's NSW Conference on Saturday.
"Labor will build the next fleet of new trains in the Hunter - where the original fleet was built."
The state government has previously invested $447 million in extending the life of the Tangara trains through production lines at Cardiff, which it says will employ 100 qualified workers and 20 apprentices.
The Minns government has committed to begin procurement of a new Tangara fleet before the next election.
After those trains, the Hunter would be tasked with replacing the Millennium and Oscar fleets in the 2040s and the Waratah fleet in the 2050s, under the plan.
"This is a proud day for the Hunter," Minister for the Hunter Yasmin Catley said.
"Rail manufacturing is an important chapter in our history, and now under our government, it will be an important part of our future too."
Formal expressions of interest will open for both building the facility and manufacturing the train fleets in the next steps, as well as finalising the factory's site.
Potential sites mooted for the Hunter manufacturing hub include a former Teralba coal mine and Broadmeadow's Locomotive Depot, which sits near where the original Tangara trains were built in the 1980s and '90s.
The state government said due diligence and stakeholder consultation would help guide site selection, as well as negotiations with mining giant Glencore if the Teralba option is pursued.
Minister for Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement Courtney Houssos said the benefits of the investment could extend well beyond transport industries.
"We know that manufacturing jobs don't stand alone," she said.
"For every job in a factory, a further 3.5 are created in the supply chain, and we want those jobs in NSW."
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union NSW state secretary Brad Pidgeon said the announcement was "an important moment" in the AMWU's push to bring manufacturing back to the state "after the former government sent thousands of jobs offshore".
"A dedicated state-owned train building facility in the Hunter, and this steady long-term fleet pipeline, will translate to decades of secure, highly skilled manufacturing jobs for local workers," he said.
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp said beyond making trains and jobs, the factory would also produce the next generation of manufacturers through training.
"Newcastle is a proud manufacturing city, we built the Tangaras, we assembled the Waratahs, and now we are building the NSW trains of the future," he said.
