QUEENSLAND has confirmed its $A 7.1bn ($US 5.28bn) Rollingstock Expansion Programme to manufacture trains in the state as it gears up to host the 2032 Olympic Games.
The state’s Labor Government announced that 65 new six-car passenger trains will be built at a new purpose-built manufacturing facility owned by the state government at Torbanlea outside the regional city of Maryborough, 270km north of Brisbane. The new trains will be used on the south-eastern Queensland network and the first sets are expected to enter service in 2025.
Three manufacturers - Alstom, CAF and Downer Rail - are competing for an existing contract to build 20 trains and will have an opportunity to bid for the increased order for 65 sets when a request for proposals is issued by the end of this year. The preferred supplier to build the 65 trains is expected to be named in the second half of 2022, with construction of the Torbanlea manufacturing facility to follow.
The $A 7.1bn investment will include the construction of new rail infrastructure in the south-east and maintenance of the new fleet at a new facility as well as additional stabling and train cleaning infrastructure. State premier, Ms Annastacia Palaszczuk, says the announcement is one of the most significant her government has made, creating 800 new full-time jobs.
“This is going to be the largest investment in train manufacturing that Queensland has ever seen,” Palaszczuk says
