This thread is for Canberra-Sydney Rail corridor improvements (non-HSR).
Improving train travel times between Sydney and Canberra would be welcome, but the station needs to move closer to the Canberra CBD.
ACT and NSW governments commit to improving Canberra-Sydney train line, but high speed rail won’t be the focus.
ACT Labor has announced plans to work with the New South Wales government to reduce the travel time on the rail line between Canberra and Sydney.
Labor today flagged it would establish a cross-border working group to investigate priority areas to upgrade the line, if the party is elected to a seventh term of government on October 19.
The trip between the national capital and the harbour city currently takes more than four hours, making it considerably slower than travelling by car, bus, or plane.
Notes
I think the geography and urbanisation of Canberra makes moving the station closer to the city an extremely costly exercise, and the money may be better spent on line upgrades to reduce running times. Extension south of the lake towards Majura or the Parliamentary Triangle would go through medium/high density development or through expensive ‘elite Canberra’ to still be on the wrong side of the lake to the CBD - i.e. not happening.
If you branch off west of Queanbeyan but east of the developed area of Fyshwick, you could head towards the airport and up towards Mt Ainslie, but you either have to go over floodplain if you stick close to the lake or tunnel through the hills to proceed - then you hit the Defence complex and/or urban Canberra on the run into the CBD - also probably not happening (at least, not without extraordinary cost).
Having used the service many times, the slow bits seem to me to be the descent from Queanbeyan down to Bungendore, the section between Mittagong and Campbelltown, and constantly getting stuck behind all-stopper trains in the Sydney urban areas. Those are three areas I’d focus on to get the journey times down.
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There are a few options:
- Do nothing
- City-CBR Airport-Queanbeyan (can be LRT, Busway or Regional Rail)
- LRT via Barton, conversion of the existing corridor to LRT through Fyshwick and then terminate at Queanbeyan.
The main question would be whether it was desirable to have the regional rail station in (a) the city centre (near the National Convention and Exhibition Centre) or (b) outside of the city centre (at Queanbeyan).
The city centre is more convenient for regional train passengers, however the Queanbeyan option and LRT/BRT conversion provides a viable option for the majority of passengers and residents making local work trips. It is the option that would likely give higher patronage overall. In this scenario, regional trains would terminate at Queanbeyan, and then change to a frequent local LRT or BRT service.
There is a median for parts of Morsehead drive and Parkes Way that can be leveraged for median LRT or BRT running.
I am a little dubious that having the terminus in what is technically NSW would gain much political traction 
, but if memory serves the older HSR ideas suggested the HSR station could be near the airport if ever built in the future. I wonder if the Airport might be a similarly suitable terminus for regular heavy rail in the long term interim with easy interchange with LRT/BRT and the airport. The R3 bus already approximately services the route you’ve outlined as far as the bottom of the airport precinct.
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Sydney-Canberra Xplorer Train Service Consultation
The ACT has the advantage of being the National Capital. The rail line crosses from one state into a territory, and its the National Capital so the case is there for Federal $$$.
An extension of the rail line into the CBD, perhaps as part of a wider package to straighten the line could also have a stop at Canberra Airport. It would also make running a short but frequent commuter train service Canberra <> Queanbeyan viable as well. The ACT Government could contract NSW Trains to do this, similar to how Airtrain contracts QR to run service.
Another possibility is to place the station outside of Canberra such that any future HSR has Canberra ‘on the way’ rather than have to take a spur line to reach it. This would require the LRT to be extended north to a new station on the main line.
Canberra has lots of potential, and will one day be a very large city. Now is the time to preserve corridors.
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LR from.cbd to airport for new train hub to link north to goulburn, east to Quenbeyan…
I do recall two sections needs rerouting, first is Picton bypass and forgot whats the other…
Even better if Maldon to Dombarton link gets finished for a Canberra-Wollongong link but probs not frequent as main Syd to Cbr line
Plus the line needs to be electrificated from macarthur to Canberra via Mossvale,Bowral,Mittagong,Goulburn…
I recall with albury to Goulburn with wagga,Yass section needs some straightening/electrification too…
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Queanbeyan through Bungendore requires significant re-alignment on the current track. It follows a ridge line along the Molonglo River until a few kms outside Bungendore. Bungendore to Tarago has a few curves, but Tarago to Goulburn is rather straight. But because of Lake George and a shelf-like cliff adjacent to it, there isn’t really an alternative practical route out of Canberra if you were going to make use of the part of the track from Bungendore/Tarago north that is decent. You either tinker with what you have (which would be a fair bit of work east of Queanbeyan) or build a new route (and good luck getting the latter unless it’s a formal HSR project).
Tallong through Moss Vale is a bit weavy; Picton has a semi-spiral and through to Menangle is very weavy.
The Xplorers also get stuck behind the all-stoppers in the dual-track sections closer in.
Having a proper station closer to the CBD would be nice, either if we are stuck with the rail network we currently have or if Canberra is on a main HSR alignment. The current Kingston station is very poorly located to actually go places in the city, and some of the train departure/arrival times are inconvenient and before or after public transport really operates in Canberra; but the old corridor into the CBD is now mostly a part of Lake Burley Griffin - the original line into the CBD was washed away in I think 1922 (or something like that), so a new alignment would be needed. As for HSR, I’ve never been particularly fond of the spur plan in principle, but the Brindabellas are a rather substantial impediment to a route west towards Gundagai and Wagga Wagga. I don’t know where you’d put a through station anywhere other than the CBD (underground) or near the airport, unless it was well north of Gungahlin. Gungahlin is surrounded by some quite large hills along the NSW border; as a former resident of Ngunnawal and Moncrieff, they were nice to look at, but would be challenging to put a station near (unless perhaps it were near Mt Majura and then ran underground under the north part of Belconnen). But Mt Majura is more or less at the airport anyway.
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