The NSW Government has been congratulated by the Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, on its program for improving rail travel times between Canberra and Sydney.
Mr Barr has called on the Federal Government to join in the cause.
He said the ACT Government had been working closely with its NSW counterparts over the past two years on improvements to the service and had jointly applied for Federal funding for the project.
“Earlier this year, the ACT Government committed up to $5 million in matched funding for business case development on the project, which was matched by NSW,” Mr Barr said.
“We know that Canberrans will use a faster train service,” he said.
“In a recent Government survey, 57 per cent of respondents said they would be more likely to travel via train between Canberra and Sydney if the travel time was between two-to-three hours.”
He said that with both major parties in NSW making funding commitments for this work, the major parties at the Federal level should also make commitments to be a funding partner for the Canberra-Sydney faster rail project ahead of the 2019 Federal election.
“We look forward to working with the NSW Government in the months ahead on the business case development and, once that work is complete, the speedy implementation of improvements to the service,” Mr Barr said.
