New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has pledged $12 billion to bring train manufacturing back to the Hunter. He made the announcement at the NSW Labor state conference, ABC reported, and shortlisted two sites for a factory to build a new fleet.
The state government says the money buys a new state-owned train manufacturing facility in the Hunter, run by a private manufacturer, plus a rolling stock pipeline over 15 years. Instead of buying trains project by project from overseas, it wants to give industry the long-term certainty to invest locally and train apprentices.
Two sites
After what the government calls an extensive search, the candidates are a former coal mine at Teralba and the Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot, near where the original Tangara fleet was built between 1986 and 1998. Site selection is subject to due diligence and stakeholder consultation. For Teralba, the government will also have to hold further talks with Glencore and partners about acquiring the land.
The facility is expected to employ up to 780 workers during construction and 550 in ongoing jobs, in the plant and its supply chains. Courtney Houssos, the minister for domestic manufacturing, said every factory job creates a further three and a half in the supply chain.
A 30-year pipeline
The plan reaches well past the first order. After the new Tangara fleet, the pipeline would continue with replacements for the Millennium and OSCAR fleets in the 2040s and the Waratah fleet in the 2050s. The government says the facility should anchor more than 30 years of manufacturing.
It also meets two election commitments: a minimum 50 per cent local content for rolling stock contracts, and starting procurement of the new Tangara fleet by the end of the first term. Next come a final site decision and a formal Expression of Interest for the contracts to build the facility and the trains. Transport has run supplier workshops to prepare businesses to bid.
To start rebuilding the workforce, the government has set up two production lines of the $447 million Tangara Life Extension program at the Cardiff rail facility. They will employ 100 qualified workers and 20 apprentices. A separate $6.5 billion, 10-year investment in electric buses was included in the June budget.
What they said
“The Hunter knows how to build trains,” Minns said in the government’s statement. “Our job is to make sure it has the opportunity to build them again.” He added: “We’re not announcing a one-off order of trains. We’re building a long-term pipeline of work.”
The government blamed the previous Liberal-National government for 12 years of offshoring. Minns said its overseas trains “didn’t fit our tunnels or tracks.” Brad Pidgeon, state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union NSW, called it “an important moment in our campaign to bring train manufacturing jobs back to NSW.”
The tender
The Newcastle Herald reported in late September that Minns returned to Newcastle to open the tender. A final decision on location was due before the end of the year. “Transport [for NSW] is telling us the early 2030s,” he said for when manufacturing could begin, adding that he wanted it earlier. He acknowledged scepticism but pointed to the Tangara rebuilding program, which he said was on time and on budget.
Train manufacturing is shaping up as a Labor pitch in the Hunter, where One Nation is increasingly active. “We are not waiting for high-speed rail,” Minns said. “We are doing this no matter what.”
Sources
- 'Taking control': Manufacturing of trains to return to the Hunter
- $12 billion investment to rebuild Hunter train manufacturing
- Minns launches $12b Hunter train tender ahead of looming election battle
