Now there are new promises. The federal Labor government has established the High Speed Rail Authority with funds to begin corridor planning, and the prospect of 250km/h plus speeds between the Hunter and Sydney.

Meanwhile, the NSW government has released its Future Transport Strategy with options for both high speed rail (HSR) and faster rail, the latter involving track upgrades to reduce Newcastle to Sydney travel times by around 30 minutes. However, the new promises might be tarnished. A future Central Coast and Newcastle service might not terminate at Sydney's Central station, like it has since 1889. There is growing evidence that Newcastle and Central Coast travellers will be dumped at Sydney Olympic Park, or somewhere nearby.

A 2013 feasibility study into HSR, when Labor was last in power federally, expresses preference for HSR stations along the M1 motorway with a terminus in Western Sydney. The NSW government's Future Transport Strategy nominates the so-called Central River City as the likely destination for the Central Coast and Newcastle line, irrespective of whether the service is HSR or a higher speed upgrade. The Central River City is planning-speak for the Parramatta area. Possible sites mentioned in the strategy are Epping, Parramatta City and Sydney Olympic Park. When I sought clarification for this column, a Transport for NSW spokesperson said that planning was underway "to determine potential station locations within the Central River City including Sydney Olympic Park."

A concern, then, is that a faster rail service for the Central Coast and Newcastle has been hijacked as an economic development project for Western Sydney, rather than being first and foremost an attempt to lower travel times.

The rationale for a faster rail service is straight forward. Rail travel is an efficient way to link commuter belts to jobs. Workers pack trains on the Central Coast and Newcastle line every morning to access the half a million jobs in the Sydney CBD. And rail makes it easier for households from the Central Coast and Newcastle to access services and entertainment that aren't available locally. More would use the trains if travel times were slashed. In addition, jobs in Central Coast and Newcastle businesses and government departments would grow on the back of easier daily access.

Simple questions flow from this rationale. Why replace Central as the terminus for the Central Coast and Newcastle line? Why shunt commuters off to Parramatta where there are vastly fewer jobs - only 145,000 in the local government area - right in the middle of a Western Sydney workforce desperate for local employment.

The answer might be that government has been successfully lobbied by Western Sydney interests eager to secure the benefits of hosting a large-scale railway terminus, irrespective of the needs of the travellers involved. It is not a small matter, given the history of corruption surrounding development projects in this state, that the NSW government refuses to release two reports bearing on the design and location of improved rail services.

The first hidden report was compiled by an obscure federal agency, the National Faster Rail Agency (NFRA), set up in 2017 to examine options for rail improvements around Australia. A NFRA spokesperson advised me by email that a faster rail business case for the Newcastle-Central Coast-Sydney line was completed and sent to the NSW government in late 2019.

The second hidden report was compiled by UK HSR expert Professor Andrew McNaughton. Professor McNaughton led a panel which examined opportunities for higher speed rail in NSW, including for Newcastle and the Central Coast. His panel delivered its report to the NSW government in early 2020. What do these reports tell us about route and terminus options, travel times, costs? Why won't the NSW government allow people to read the reports?

The role of government is to deliver services with a mind to effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness. Infrastructure projects that will cost billions of dollars need public scrutiny and debate. Secrecy is never the friend of robust, effective public administration, especially when billions of taxpayer dollars are in play.

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