After extended delays, the stalled New South Wales Maldon-Dombarton rail link project will be completed thanks to the announcement of $50 million in funding.
The Labour Party said it will make $50 million in funding available towards the project and calls for the New South Wales Government to match it.
The completion of the Maldon-Dombarton rail project will provide a 35 kilometre rail link between the port of Port Kembla and south-west Sydney, which will expand business opportunities and create new jobs in the Illawarra.
The completion of this Rail Link, which is already part built, create a freight rail connection from Port Kembla to the Main South Line at Picton, providing a major boost to freight logistics in Illawarra and south-western Sydney.
The work required to complete the Rail Link would involve building a 4km tunnel, one of the longest freight rail tunnels in Australia, high bridges over the Cordeaux and Nepean Rivers, a crossing beneath the Hume Highway, road overbridges, track construction, signalling systems and ancillary infrastructure.
The project would create hundreds of local jobs in the construction industry.
Completing the rail link will also benefit commuters on overcrowded trains on the South Coast Line linking the Illawarra to Sydney by freeing the line of freight trains, enabling more commuter passenger services.
The Labor Party provided $25.5 million in 2011 for the planning, geotechnical and engineering studies required.
In 2015 the project suffered a further delay after the NSW Government’s 12-month Register of Interest (RoI) process ruled out two separate entities expressing an interest in building the Maldon-Dombarton line.
