A year and a half after Labor took a vision for high speed rail to the 2022 election, the agency setup to develop the project hasn’t started planning the line, and won’t begin until next year, as it is busy with its “strategic plan” and “organisational strategy”.
The glacial pace of the Albanese government’s fast train ambitions was revealed during budget estimates late on Monday night. The project drew comparisons to Utopia – the TV series satirising the absurdity of government bureaucracy – after its chief referred questions about progress to a “corporate plan” published on its website.
The establishment of the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) was flagged by the government in its initial plans for its east coast high speed rail line, along with a commitment of $500m for planning for the Sydney-Newcastle section of the corridor to be built first.
The HSRA only formally came into existence in June, after legislation was passed paving the way for the abolishment of the National Faster Rail Agency (NFRA), a body established by the Morrison government in 2019 which did not deliver on earlier high speed rail projects.
Andrew Hyles, the interim chief executive officer of the High Speed Rail Authority, told senators on Monday that detailed planning had yet to begin.
“We’ve got a statement of expectations that the minister has issued to us. Under that statement of expectations, we need to complete a strategic plan by the end of the year and an organisational strategy by the end of the year,” he said.
“So that’s our focus initially, and then more detailed planning will kick off next year,” Hyles said.
In July, transport minister Catherine King travelled to the United Kingdom for a study tour, where she met with officials involved in the British High Speed 1 and 2 (HS1 and HS2) projects, later telling the media she had learned about potential funding models – such as through pension funds – that Australia could learn from.
However, Hyles said the minister had not met with his agency since her return from the UK.
When asked by Nationals senator Matt Canavan if any of the funding model advice King learned while in the UK had been relayed to the HSRA since her return, Hyles did not answer. Instead, he noted one of the agency’s board members is also the CEO of HS1, “so we have that expertise within the organisation already”.
Hyles was also unable to answer questions about a timeframe for delivery of high speed rail in Australia, instead pointing to the agency’s website.
“We’ve got a whole corporate plan which is published on our website that details the work that we’re doing to ensure that we get the planning right,” Hyles said.
Canavan then quipped: “I reckon we’re gonna have a few scripts of Utopia by the end of all this by the look of it.”
Hyles revealed that interviews for a permanent CEO had been conducted, but that the board was yet to complete the hiring process. The board first announced it was working to identify its inaugural CEO on 13 June. On 26 July, King announced an advertisement for the job had been listed online.
Industry insiders had cast doubt on the hiring process, telling the Guardian the advertised salary for the CEO role had been looked down upon when compared with leaders in similar roles.
Hyles also told the estimates hearing that all previous projects the National Faster Rail Agency worked on – including a business case for the Melbourne-Geelong fast rail jointly committed to by the commonwealth and Victorian government – had been handed back to the department of infrastructure and transport because such projects were not deemed within the new body’s remit.
Fast rail is the term generally used for rail lines that achieve speeds of between 200 and 250 km/h, while high speed is anything above this.
As a result, Hyles referred senators’ questions about these projects back to the department.
Hyles, when asked by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson if the HSRA had considered the notion of including Melbourne-Geelong fast rail within the agency’s long term planning, said no, because no detailed network planning had begun.
