A new working group with representatives from the ACT and NSW would be tasked with finding improvements to the Canberra-Sydney railway if Labor is re-elected in the territory.
Labor said it would redevelop the station into a mixed-use precinct, including homes, shops and office, as part of broader plans already foreshadowed for the East Lake area.
"This will create a mixed-use urban precinct that will cater to new local residents, businesses and visitors. Labor will also connect the station precinct with Canberra's rapid bus network," Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.
The working group would consider travel times and ways to make sure the services between Canberra and Sydney were meeting the needs of passengers. More than 280,000 trips were made on the NSW TrainLink service in and out of Canberra in the last year.
"With two Labor governments working together, we have an opportunity to progress our vision for faster and easier train travel between Canberra and Sydney," Mr Barr said.
Land sales from around the existing train station could be used to fund upgrades, with Mr Barr touting the possibility of a public-private partnership to deliver the works.
The NSW government in July announced it had begun early planning on works for "improving accessibility and safety" at the Canberra station.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the line was critical for connecting families, businesses and workers, but acknowledged it needed to be improved.
"That's why we're working with the ACT Labor government to investigate key areas for improvement that would provide more reliable and faster journeys for commuters traveling between Canberra and Sydney," Mr Minns said.
ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the announcement was thin on detail and that Canberrans would expect the Chief Minister to be focused on managing the light rail project rather than a train to Sydney.
"The fact is it's a media release with very, very little detail. And again, Andrew Barr is trying to spruik something in terms of what looks glitzy - and talking about a train from Canberra to Sydney, I think most Canberrans would ask him to focus on his own train project first," Ms Lee said.
Ms Lee said the train services to Sydney did need improvements, but questioned the timing of Labor's announcement.
"For Andrew Barr to be pushing out a media release that is nothing more than word salad really just goes to show that he has run out of ideas. He has run out of steam and that's why he's focused on dirty tactics," she said.
Mr Barr has long been advocating for improvements to rail services between the ACT and Sydney, but little has been achieved.
The ACT government in March put forward a proposal to the federal and NSW governments to jointly fund feasibility work to consider service improvements, with the territory offering to chip in $5 million if NSW matched the funding and the federal government contributed $10 million.
The proposal also noted pre-feasibility investigations completed by the NSW and ACT governments between 2018 and 2020 could form the basis for more work.
Mr Barr told Mr Minns in a letter he believed high-speed rail should remain the long-term objective but small-scale improvements should not wait.
"Reducing rail journey times between Sydney and Canberra to three hours would see a considerable shift in mode share, travel choice and expand economic activity in the region, however, improvements that achieve a reduction of just 30 minutes would also provide considerable benefit for existing users," Mr Barr wrote on March 9.
The territory pitched the $20 million in feasibility work to the federal government under the national capital investment framework in September 2023.
The proposal, later tabled in the Legislative Assembly, showed a business case for the first stage of priority rail improvements would have been be completed in December 2025 if funding was included in the Commonwealth's December 2023 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook.
In 2023, Mr Barr told a Legislative Assembly inquiry: "On a previous engagement, I caught the train and sat at the front with the driver to get a sense of what was stopping the current train from going faster.
"Partly it was the track and partly it was the fact that he would run up the back of another train because of the level of congestion on the network.
"We are very keen to improve this transport connection, but, in reality we require the New South Wales government and the commonwealth government to come to the table to assist us in that."
