Why you could be waiting even longer for the XPT’s replacement

Another set of critical design changes have to be made to NSW’s troubled fleet of new long-distance passenger trains, risking extra delays before they enter service and replace decades-old and less reliable models.

Despite already undergoing multiple design changes, internal state government documents show the “special” modifications required for the Spanish-built trains before they can enter service include extra door controls and closed-circuit television for cabs.

The “sensitive” documents – obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws – reveal the modifications are “critical and a prerequisite to enable deployment of the regional rail fleet into passenger service”.

Automatic door opening, instrument backlighting and permanent changes to steps for drivers to climb in and out are among the other changes required.

The new regional trains are now well over three years late entering service, surpassing the worst-case scenario of last December detailed several years ago in a confidential Infrastructure NSW assessment of the bungled project.

The confidential Transport for NSW documents – dated October and November last year – show senior officials were rushing to set in motion a process with the fleet’s Spanish manufacturer CAF to clear the way for modifications to start.

“It is critical that the design phase modification request is issued to CAF quickly so CAF can start the detailed design,” they state.

That would then allow the Spanish manufacturer to begin procurement for the modification work on the trains early this year, according to the documents, followed by “implementation” once the first one “achieves provisional acceptance”.

Transport for NSW’s estimate for the cost of the modifications was redacted from the documents, which show the agency has consulted the rail workers’ union about the changes to avoid a repeat of a dispute which significantly delayed the state’s other new train fleet for intercity lines.

The new long-distance trains were ordered by the previous Coalition government for key interstate rail lines from Sydney to Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, as well as for services to regional centres in NSW. Under the original plans, the first train was meant to enter service in January 2023.

Transport for NSW said the design changes were being progressed in parallel with train testing and assurance processes to bring the fleet into service.

“The design work on these refinements is well progressed and has informed the ordering of parts, so we can move as quickly as possible to implement these modifications,” it said.

The agency said a timeline for the trains’ entry into passenger service would be confirmed once they had progressed through testing, and approval was gained from the national rail safety regulator.

So far, 11 of the 29 trains are in NSW after being shipped from Spain, and three of those are undergoing intensive testing.

The cost of the new fleet, which was ordered to replace the state’s decades-old XPT, Xplorer and Endeavour trains, blew out by $826 million to $2.29 billion in 2023.

Transport for NSW had been in a long-running dispute over “contentious design changes” with the Spanish train manufacturer, which built the 29-strong fleet as part of a consortium. That consortium was dissolved late last year after the state government bought it out for an undisclosed sum.

In October, the NSW auditor-general was withering of Transport for NSW’s handling of the purchase of both the new regional and intercity train fleets, the combined cost of which has blown out by more than 50 per cent on original forecasts to $6.8 billion.

The auditor-general also found the transport agency applied “higher sensitivity classifications to many more documents” relating to the new trains than could be justified, resulting in “little public transparency on financial reporting”.

The regional train project’s complexity and risks are greater because the fleet will cross state borders, requiring co-ordination with other state and local authorities. Adding to the complexity, the trains are bimodal, which means they operate under electric or diesel power depending on which part of the rail network they are running on.

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