High Speed Rail Authority

Planning the approvals pathway for Australia’s first high speed rail 

Client | High Speed Rail Authority
Service | Approvals strategy, environmental impact assessment
Duration | 2024 - 2025
Sectors | transport

Project Overview

The Australian Government is planning for a future high speed rail network to connect Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and regional communities across the east coast of Australia. The first project of Australia’s High Speed Rail connects Newcastle to Sydney in around one hour on a new dedicated high speed railway. 

Our approach

We worked collaboratively with the High Speed Rail Authority during the development of the Newcastle to Sydney Business Case, providing specialist planning approval advice. Our role helped the project team understand approval pathways, manage regulatory risk and plan for the next phase of this nationally significant transport project. 

What we delivered

We provided targeted advice on: 

  • regulatory risk and approvals opportunities, informed by reviews of key environmental and planning documents prepared for the Business Case, including preliminary environmental assessments and the draft Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI) Scoping Report 

  • approval programs and schedule risk, including realistic approval timeframes and strategies to manage the long lead times and complexity associated with major rail approvals 

  • alignment between the approvals strategy, procurement processes and delivery models, including NSW CSSI approval requirements, approval sequencing options, interfaces between the NSW and Commonwealth approval requirements and National Park revocation processes. 

Impact

Our advice gave the project team clear, high-quality preliminary environmental assessment documents that were fit for purpose to guide the next phase of Newcastle to Sydney High Speed Rail.  We developed a practical planning approval strategy that aligned with procurement and delivery models, addressed key approval risks and gave the project team confidence to successfully transition into the Development Phase.