The Chaser Report - Australia Finally Has A High-Speed Rail! ... Hub

Episode Date: May 31, 2026

Over the weekend, Charles visited the beginning of what will one day be looked back on as the hub that changed the nation. Learn about the Newcastle to Sydney HRS Hub and plans here: https://www.hsra.gov.au/newcastle-to-sydney---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Charles, it's not every day we record our podcast on a beautiful summer's afternoon, the day before winter begins, next to a pool. So if you can hear the gentle gurgling of the pool, a filter, we're resort style today. We're a resort star. Luxury VIP five star.

In the beautiful summer winter of Sydney. It's a sinter. Yeah. I don't know what's going on. A study showed that Sydney actually had more extra days of summer-like weather due to climate change, anywhere else in the world. So lap it up, friends. Yeah.

Good one, Greens. Until the UV comes for us all. What do we talk about today, Charles? Well, Dom, this is a very special episode of The Tosa Report. Really? Because on Friday, I went up to Newcastle. Newcastle, which in regular terms is about, you know, let's say two and a half hours north of Sydney, right? Yeah.

But very soon it will be one hour from Sydney because of a little thing called the high speed rail network. Now, Charles, we've done what, 1,300 episodes of this thing now. We've covered most of the topics that have been in the Australian news in the past five years. And you have distinctly, if we had any thoroughness, we'd go back. can play the clips. Lockland, feel free to bother if you can. There's definitely ones

where we poo-poohed the idea of the high-speed rail. I just didn't remember Albo drilling into the sort of ocean bed to see if they could do it. Yes. You've changed your tune. We'll find out why

after these ads and after Loughlin, if you can be bothered, digs into the archive. All right, so if Lachlan has any clips that might make you look deeply pretty critical, play them now. That's what very fast trains are for.

They're for election campaigning. They're not for building. I'll be in my 70s before I can hop on. I don't want to be the one who poo-poo's high-speed rail. But you are. But I like the idea you can have your mind changed Charles. I've always dreamt of high-speed rail. Well, the thing that changed my mind is I was walking along the main street of Newcastle.

And lo and behold, what did I encounter? The National High-Speed Authority Rail Infrastructure Hub or something like that. just get out the... It's been a while since I've been to the middle of Newcastle. But, and I say this with love, because I know of all the great work Marcus Westbury did in renew Newcastle and breathing action back into the city. But Charles, it's a place where you can get real estate very cheaply to the point where when Marcus Westbury was doing his thing, they'd basically give it away. There are all these buildings that if you had anything decent, you could just put it in for free. Yes, to paint a picture, I was walking past a whole lot of boarded up

shops and, you know, run down news agents that had been recently closed because of illegal sales of tobacco. Were you playing the Civic Theatre? Playing at the Civic Theatre. Great theatre. That is actually a lot. People go to gigs of that. Oh, yeah.

It's lovely. It's humping. We had a lot of fun actually doing shows there. And it's going to be pumping soon because of the National High Speed Rail Hub run by the high speed rail authority of the Australian government. So Charles is holding up a picture of, yeah, the very... Have you noticed? Notice how the Australian government logo looks like someone made it in Microsoft Word?

It's Times New Roman Bold. Yes, just with basically clip art. So, yeah. And that's in Newcastle. And why is it in Newcastle, Charles, and not in Sydney? Oh, yeah, the rent. No, it's because that's where the light rail, that's where the high speed rail starts. That's where Australia is getting its very fast train.

It's imminent. No, Charles, it's because it's a marginal seat. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so it is a little bit of a marginal seat. That one nation might well win it. Yes, exactly, exactly. So there is that. But Dom, I have to run you through this because...

I'll stop, I'll stop undermining you, Charles. You just sort of... Sell me on the vision. I'm ready. These are the sort of, you're like the doubters and the complainers, right? And I'm sick of that in this country. I'm the Charles of the last episode when we discuss this. I've always wanted to dream in this, Charles.

Yes. I'm like, I'm like Charlie Brown and the peanuts and Lucy's pulled the football away when I'm trying to kick it. I was trying to latch on the dream of the high speed, right? I kept getting pulled away. It's happening. There's a hub. It's happening.

There's a hub. Have you learnt nothing from Utopia? All right, come on, sell me. Okay. So you're walking. Well, actually, to be honest, it was closed on the day. Okay. It's like, when you say, hub.

No, but, but Dom. So I was just peering in, right, and this very kindly gentleman. You were glimpsing into the Wonderland through the windows. Glimping into the hub. And this gentleman, even though it's head on the door, it's actually closed today, when, here, do you want to come in anyway? Are you seriously? And I'll guide you around.

Private VIP tour. of the railhards. I think that must have recognised me from the chase report and gone, well, he's someone who needs to know about this high-speed rail. And tell the nation. Yes, tell the nation. Either that or you were literally the first person. They'd had a round-the-clock shift trying to get anyone through. Well, apparently everyone else was offered an off-site that day.

And the office was supposed to be closed, but he'd come in to do some email to get chipping's email. Oh, okay. At an off-site. Was the off-site like in Japan? So it's actually a working high-speed rail system? No, no. So anyway, so I walk in, first thing you see, right, like pride of place, right, in the sender as you walk in, is a model of a train, right? A yellow and blue train. Looks very fast, because they are. It's a very fast train. Oh, it does. It looks like a shin can't send. It looks like a, or a Tejave, the French one.

Got a sort of pointy nose. Very aerodynamic. Very, very elegant. And I say that the guy, right, so is this what it's going to look like? And you mean, oh, well, no, it will depend on the Tinder. But that's what it could look like. It says, like, there's a sign underneath it saying Australia's first high-speed railway. Yeah. And it doesn't say could look like this depending on the tender. It's sort of an artist's impression.

But we know that it will be, it'd have to be sleek and bullet-shaped. That's how they got the name. I think so, yeah. Well, I mean, maybe not Australia's though. Maybe. Yeah, we have the first flat-ended one. Flat-ended one. Like one of the old Sydney system silver trains,

Maybe we should make a high-speed Tangara. You know what it'll be? It'll be light rail. Like, that's the one thing Newcastle has got is they've got light rail right at the front of where this hub was. Yes, yeah. He's imagined due to a cock-up in the design stage, they'll order light rail

carriages. It'll take 10 hours to get from city to Newcastle. No, no. So, no, look, again, enough with your doubting. No, no, sorry, sorry, I'm being sold. I'm on board. But basically this guy goes, and I say, is it, so is it real? is it actually happening, right?

And this guy goes, yeah, yeah, it's starting in two years time. A high speed rail? The high speed rail is starting in two years time. You're not talking about the train itself. You're talking about their laying the first bit of track? I thought he was actually doing about the election because that's starting in two years time as well. Oh, yeah, that's true, actually. But, you know, like I think with most things in this episode, you're going to find that what's

true of the high speed rail is also true of election timing and time dates. Okay, right. and electoral necessity. So yes, it was based in the marginal seat. Goes through the Central Coast marginals. They're starting to make it in two years time. Like, it actually, they're breaking ground or whatever it is in two years time. And I did say to him, but hang on, we reported on the Chase Report last year.

Well, I didn't say that, but I said, you know, we reported. A reputable podcast told me. Yeah. I thought that they'd already done some drilling in the hawksbury and like along where that line's going to be. And he went, oh, funny, you should mention that, Charles, though he didn't say Charles because he didn't know the name. First visitor. Have a look.

Oh, they've done the drilling into the clay. Oh. And it was fascinating, right? So they went along. We're about to get into some geology. Just watch out. And they drilled down into the bedrock to find out what each thing was in, right? Like what they'd be drilling into.

So a lot of it's to do, a lot of it's sandstone, right? Really easy. That's what you like. Yeah. Then you get up sort of into the hawksbury and suddenly it turns into fucking granite. Oh. And I said, well, is that going to be a problem for the boring machines?

And they went, and he went, no, you can, you can just, it'll just be, take a bit longer. So it's going underground through all that. So it's all underwent. The worry, the worry was always Charles, all the river systems. It's very complicated map. There's mountains. And so they're just going to go underneath all of it. So, so they're going to go down to Lake Macquarie overground, right?

You need to go deep enough to go under the lake. And then you go from Lake Macquarie to Gosford. Right. Right. And it is true. I think there's a bit of muddy stuff. Like a lot of the ground. That was part of the problem.

There was some muddy ground. It's mud, right? Oh, no, no. That's actually south of Gosford. It's muddy. Okay. So you get along there. You get to Lake Macquarie.

Then from Lake Macquarie, it's basically sandstone. Easy, easy, easy. No, no, but you're still going overground at that point. Right, right. You get to Gosford and they just go, fuck it. We're going to go underground all the way from Gosford, which is about, what, 80 kilometres away, 70 kilometres away, way, all the way to Sydney underground.

Well, I mean, I mean, that's a lot easier in the sense that imagine all the right of ways you'd have to get all the compulsory acquisitions to try and build it above ground through that. Yes, you're right. I mean, through. You have to demolish a lot of the North Shore. In fact, I'm in favour of that model. Through, but you'd also have to go through all of the sort of, you know, Australia's stabbing capital, like the Central Coast. The Chaser Report.

Now with extra whispers. So, but the mud, the mud, he just went, well, we're just going to like, you know, we'll just, instead of. drilling through the mud, we'll just go down lower and go underneath the mud, right? And the other, this guy's an optimist. And then the funny, the really funny thing was, so look at, I don't know if you can, well, you can't, the reviewers, the listeners can't see. We can make these calls. We'll put the cause in the show notes or something.

Or in the episode image or something. But the, the one at the end on the right hand side, the very last one, that's coal, right? So they dug down into Newcastle and it was all coal. But the whole fucking Newcastle is coal. So it's going to go through a flammable substance. So this is the first time that it's environmentally sound to drill coal. Oh, they'll take coal out to fund it. It's actually finally a funding model.

Is it a funding model? I mean, am I stupid? Is it a bad idea to build a rail tunnel through a seam of coal? It's flammable? Well, but trains and coal are integrally linked. Oh, it's a steam train. Is that? Okay.

Self, operating high. Speed. Steen train. That's great. I'll bet you that sort of it is. Charles, yeah.

Okay, so the big question that I have for you at this point. Okay. So saying it's going to be the next two years. Yes. Is it going to be possible? Yes. Just in case Paulian Hanson wins or Angus Taylor wins or whoever it might be. Yeah.

Are they going to be able to make it so it can't be cancelled in the next two years? That's always the real point. Can they do a deal? Come on. Is such that you can't cancel? That's when it would, that's when it really will become real and it gets up believing at the point where it's impossible to cancel. Well, they've got a hub.

Can you cancel the lease on a hub? I think you can. At the moment, I don't know the answer to that, but at the moment they're doing a whole lot of tendering, right? So, and it's for engineering and stuff like that. But part of the other thing he said was it's also about training up the next generation of engineering. Right.

Because actually, and getting the universities to know how to do all this stuff. Because this is a multi-generational project. Like, the. engineers that we train through university now are going to be the people who are actually cutting the ribbon when the first tranche gets sort of thing. And then the whole plan is that once you go Newcastle to Sydney, you don't stop there. You go on to Western Sydney Airport, right? Yeah. Then you go to Newcast. No, then you go to Canberra, right? And then eventually it'll be Melbourne to Canberra to Sydney. And that whole trip. Newcastle, don't forget Newcastle.

And then up to Newcastle. You know. And then one day maybe Brisbane. But, and the whole thing about that link is from Newcastle to Sydney. That's the easy one, right? Four hours. Yeah. That'd be very good.

So it'll be Newcastle to Sydney's one hour. Sydney to Canberra is one and a half hours. And Melbourne's in four hours. You could actually do a weekend in Melbourne on the train. Yes. You could do a weekend. And I said, what does Qantas have to say about that? Because you're right.

Like, Quantus is going to be wanting to stop these. Or invest in it. But I think the point is that. You know, like, we're talking, like, we're going to be dead by the time this happens. So it seems reasonably likely. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, like, but the whole thing is, this is happening today.

This is, it is, it is happening now. I mean, we said when Alba was elected that that was his one thing. Yeah. The high speed rowers. So I challenge the prime minister to come on the podcast. Yes. I throw down my gauntlet. Yep.

Will the prime minister come on the podcast and convince us, and our many listeners, but mostly us, that this is going to happen. This is actually a real thing that can't be cancelled, that it's actually going to happen. Because there was talk of bipartisan buy-in on this, I mean, it is a nation-building project. I mean, we kind of know that this is a, like, it's an election promise. It's something that both parties promise every time. You can't go to an election saying, we scuttled the high-speed rail. You can't.

It's late Amazon's air. It's definitely happening. You're saying because something's an election promise, there's no way you can cancel it. No, I'm just saying, like, I reckon they'll go to the next election saying this is happening. Like, we've started digging. The biggest risk is electing anyone other than us because in three more years, there's no way. Well, let's have a look. Let me just take a look.

Like, that'll be talking about the AFR figures of whether or not, you know, which seats are one nation going to win. Let's just see. Because the thing is, everyone's going to be thinking, like, at the next election, people aren't going to be thinking, Oh, I wonder what's happening to house prices. Oh, I wonder what's having to petrol prices. No. I wonder what's having immigration. They're going, I want a high speed rail link between Gosford and Newcastle in 2038.

That's, it won't be cost of living. Yeah. They're going to be saying. They'll be saying, because in 10 years' time, I want to be able to get to Newcastle in one hour. I don't care how much of costs. I don't care. Petrol or whatever. What he said, under the modelling, in current.

prices, an economy fair from Newcastle to Sydney will cost $30. Which I reckon is pretty good. I'm not always clear on where these seats are, but I do know Dobell is in the Central Coast. Yeah, yeah. On these numbers going to One Nation. Yeah. Macquarie and Whitlam.

Yep. One Nation. See, Patterson One Nation. Yep. Who do you trust... And Hunter. Who do you trust Dom to deliver your high speed rail? The first seat on this list.

Nambi Tamby Flimsy One Nation party or the Dependixie. indible Labor Party. The seat of hunters the first one on the AFRs list. Their percentage chance of One Nation winning the seat of Hunter. What? 100%. But that's before the drilling. Well, I just thinking One Nation is going to be in favour.

Like, everyone's going to be in favour of it. If you could walk into the hub, there's no way you can exit going, I'm not in favor of this. If we sort of, if they were to trick Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor on them to wander into the hub, then they'd, maybe they said, maybe they could. could send them a fake invitation to a cocktail party of Gina Reinhardt's, Charles, held in the hub. Do you think that would work? That's right. Gina wants you to come and just come and see the hub.

We're going to get Gina into high speed rail. Easy. It's easy. Guess how fast it is? 350 kilometers and out. That's faster than the Maglev in Shanghai. That's faster than it was to resolve her court case. It also is a bit complicated because you're going, so it's 350 kilometers an hour

and yet it takes an hour to get from Newcastle of Sydney. I thought the Maglev was 400k a hour. But anyway, Charles, you've already solved the problem. How do we get, you've solved the whole thing politically. You've just solved it in this conversation. What? It's so simple. What?

It's so simple. For one nation to support it, Gina Reinhart needs to support it. Yes. For liberals to support it. Yes. One nation needs to support it. Yes. How will Gina Reinhart support it?

No. It's coal. It's made of coal. It's a mine, it's not a, Charles, it's not a high-speed rail operation. It's a giant mine. It's a mining operation. It's a huge mine. It just so happens once we've done the mine.

You may as well run trains through the tunnels. You've built them. But it's actually mainly for carrying rocks and mining. But it's actually a mine. The point of it is to dig the stuff out. Yes. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to build those tunnels for mining,

you may as well build high speed rail in them. And there's other things that they could do to get buying. Because one of the things that the guy who showed me around said is, they have a huge amount of listening. Like, it's all about, like, where they've decided to put the, you know, hubs and things like that. Yeah. It's all about actually also housing growth and...

Yes, well, that's the whole thing. Along the crowd. It's actually, I mean, to be fair, this is exactly what the coalition did in New South Wales. Yes. Builders, it's been a huge amount of money building giant tunnels in the ground paid for by the development on top of where the station's up. And it fucking worked. And you got to hand to them.

Yeah, I mean, Labor's taking the credit for it. That was not their model. That was barriculiant. Yes, exactly. And they, I mean, credit where credits do, it's sort of like amazing how good the Metro has been. You build a station where the, where the Metro station is. That's where your skyscrapers go.

But look, there's other ways. Hang on a second, they're going to be skyscrapers in Newcastle. Oh, yeah. And Lake Macquarie. Oh, wow. And Gosford. And Gosford. Is there going to be a station in Gosford?

Yeah, there's going to be a station in Gosford. This is the thing. Gosford's going to become essentially a northern suburb of Sydney. And a thriving metropolis. It'll be like 20 minutes, Sydney to Gosford. It'll be like, we'll be Tokyo and Gosford will be Osaka. That's what it'll be. And Newcastle will be Fukuoka.

Oh my gosh, what a dream. And we could move state parliament to Gosford. Yeah, that's a great idea. I think that's a great idea. Yeah, yeah. And then free up Macquarie Street for more apartments. More apartment, of course, with water views. And that will fund.

That would actually, that would actually fund the whole thing. Wow. Nations built. Nations built. Charles, will the Prime Minister come on the podcast and convince this this is actually going to happen? Well, I think that's what we've got to do. I don't think he dares not come on the podcast. No, exactly.

Yeah. Gauntlet, thrown down. On the next episode of the Chaser Report, the Prime Minister, the Honourable Anthony Albanesey MP. Yes. Or not? Or not. Possibly not. Possibly not.

Probably not.