Australia’s $64BN Mega Railway | American Reacts | My husband is working on this project?! 

The sand that formed this sandstone came from an ancient river that ran through old Victoria into old NSW and carried the eroded mountain range sand from when Antarctica was still attached to mainland old Austalia. Working in recycled Antarctic mountain range. Same for the Blue Mtns.

I was based in Neutral Bay in Sydney at the then submarine base back in the mid 70's, and I can tell you there was no need for the under-harbour tunnels back then. It was easy to get onto the Harbour Bridge from both ends back then, traffic was a lot less than it is now (or in the 90's). I enjoy your vids, and like everyone else, glad to see the smile back on your face...don't stress luv, there's no way you won't be able to stay. We know good folks when we see em.

Hi Kaitlin, it is interesting following the progress of this new railway. I lived in Sydney until 1981 and the only new railway that I saw open there was the Eastern Suburbs Railway to Bondi Junction in 1979. The Bankstown line is of special interest, as I used to live at Marrickville, which will be converted along with the rest of the line to Metro and start running in 2025. Here in Melbourne, we are building new rail lines as well. The largest rail line planned is the Suburban Rail Loop or SRL, which when completed, will connect with every suburban train line in Melbourne. Anyway, thanks for sharing a very interesting and informative video. Take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.

We are having 2 tunnels to connect 2 freeways here in Adelaide. Not as big as the Sydney one but a big project nonetheless.

As well as Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane are both doing major rail projects….. Melbourne’s Metro Project…. And Brisbane’s Cross River Rail Project….. yes our infrastructure is a bit old and we probably leave it until it’s really needed ….. but these things need doing now….. the only downside is that it’s costing a fortune but it’s needed.

That's nothing compared to the Sydney to Brisbane expressway. It kind of gets messed up in Newcastle but it is still technically a super highway. It took about 50 years and it's still not absolutely finished. Don't forget that Australia is as big as North America but has less than 30 million inhabitants. Much of the US highway infrastructure was built just after WWII through government emergency funds. In other words, we don't have enough people to fund huge infrastructure projects to the extent other countries do.

The road and railway tunnel projects are such a needed but expensive need to get around Sydney. Must be fascinating and rewarding to be working on this infrastructure.

Don't forget either that Sydney's road system was built for horse and cart when suburbs were already built. Because of it's hilly topography, it made it impossible to widen the roads, so the trams and rail became essential.

Apparently, it is a custom dating as far back as the 1500's to name tunnel boring machine after women. Well, there were no TBM's back then, but they used explosives to excavate, and the workers would pray to Saint Barbara. Governments choose names after prominent women in their state/society. In Victoria at least, probably the same in NSW, that the TBM's get blessed by the church and a smoking ceremony by the local aboriginies before they are set to work. I love the B1M channel. About a year ago they did an episode on a cruise ship tunnel in Norway; and more recently, three roads and a roundabout under the sea in the Faroe Islands.

Gee, I live in Alice Springs and had no idea that this was happening in my old hometown lol 😅

Don't forget the harbour tunnel for cars and the cross city tunnel, again for cars, plus the tollways. Not exactly no development since the bridge

Politics is the reason behind the delays to Australian infrastructure. As for the first Sydney Tunnels there was Government disagreement from both State and Federal over several decades as to what portions they would support and the location, finally signing off just before 1988, Australia's Bicentenary Year to show the start of a significant building event trying to have it finished within their term of governance and have celebrations throughout the year.

I have a Buddy working on (Engineering / Project management)lots of Sydney tunnel projects I was fortunate to get a guided tour on the Norwest rail TBM... Impressive to see working.. Definitely needs the west- southwest / airport link - like London's Piccadilly Line absolutely vital....

The main tunnel from Barangaroo under the harbour to north Sydney has been completed a couple of years ago now ( metro west under darling Harbour is in the early stages of its tunneling ) with the extension from Chatswood to Sydenham in the finishing stages of a long testing period and should be open to the public in the next couple of months. The new Bankstown metro line, will also have a flow on effect to existing Sydney trains network, aside from a second crossing for trains across the harbour and less people at the existing crowded city stations, the Bankstown line will no longer exist ie not go through city circle freeing up more spaces for additional airport and western line trains.

Before anyone complains about lack of infrastructure in Sydney, consider the states second city - Newcastle (population ~ 600,000). Newcastle once had the nations 3rd biggest tram network. Closed in the middle of last century. There were train services to Cessnock, Toronto and Belmont. All long closed. The rail service to CBD was closed in 2015 and trains now terminate at Wickham 3km to the west. It has taken 60+ years to build the inner city bypass (final stage only now under construction). I could go on, but you get the idea. Sydney gets all the money and attention. Newcastle is but a pimple on the bum of NSW’s infrastructure budget.

I commented on one of your videos and then realised it was an upload from 10 months ago, so I’m leaving it here as well, so you don’t miss out! “You might not have seen it so I highly recommend the TV mini series, “Women of the Sun”. It’s on SBS On Demand. I watched it as part of my teacher training course and I found it challenging as well as beautiful. I just discovered there’s a 25 years later story as well! I need to watch that. The stories will shine a light on our history!”

Riding in the Metro driverless trains is a real 'trip' when you stand right at the front where a driver would normally be. You can see the tunnel ahead light up as you hurtle through it at pace. You just hope whoever's controlling it on their computer in the Metro office is paying attention!

Lucky fellah Mark to working on one interesting project.

I work near Westmead so have endured and been involved in the redevelopment of Westmead Hospital and now the opening of the new light rail project phase 1 and the tunnel to the city you talked about.

Four stops up from Kaitlyn at St Mary's the tunnel is going towards the new western Sydney Airport you can see the huge Marr crane that lifts the cutting heads in and out

Melbourne has similar things going on. They have additional train tunnels in the CBD being constructed and level crossings are all being removed on all of our Train networks across Melbourne. This is speeding up traffic, removing any stoppages for road users and trains, increasing safety etc…

Thats so cool that Marks working on this project 🙂. I didnt know too much about it until watching this. Definitely an over due project. Only thing that was more overdue and was the second Sydney airport. 20+ years of no action talk and arguing over where to put it.

A lot of development was done on the rail network when Sydney was far less than a million people. There was a massive expansion in 1860. To put it in perspective, at this time Sydney had a large population that California. But the most impressive transport expansion must have been the trams. In it's heyday, Sydney had one of the largest tram networks in the world. At over 290km, it was 20% bigger than the current largest tram system in the world, which is Melbourne. Melbourne maintained its system thanks to flat gradients and wide, straight roads. Whereas Sydney gave into cars and buses for expansion. The light rail net today is less than 8% of the size of the old network. Love the idea of the metro though. Sydney was the first city in the world to introduce double deck suburban electric trains. The idea was to gain an instance capacity increase (the first double decks joined single deck red rattlers). But the problem with this is that the large capacity has led to slower trains with lower frequency. The benefit of the isolated Metro system is that the automated trains can travel at higher speeds due to station platform gates (lowering risk of people entering tracks at stations) and straight platforms which allow trains to enter stations more quickly. The design is all about getting people on and off quickly, which when combined with speed allows for a significant increase in frequency. Although there has been a lot of investment in the metro, the investment in the Westconnex tunnels is commendable, although the government's addition to allowing private firms to hold the public to ransom is a serious issue. To date, the Westconnex and Rozelle interchange alone make up the world' largest underground road network. M4 (5.5km each way). (M4-M8 7.5km each way), M8 (9km each way). Combined this is 22km which is just shy of the world's longest tunnel in Norway (which is 24.51 km). But add the Rozelle Interchange and it overtakes. That is currently 13 individual tunnels of which 16km is currently in-use out of 24km of tunnels. Serious stuff!!! This makes Sydney by far the most tunnels road city in the world. Only China seems to have a bigger addition of TBM machines.

In Adelaide we have the same problem. Even we are not a big city. we are the only city without north/south connecter. The only road that come close is Main South road and yet in some part you are still have to wait for traffic light and they only why out is under ground and by tunnels.

There are similar projects underway in Melbourne. It was interesting to see how the tunnelling machines work. The big problem in Melbourne has been the disposal of toxic soil.

You think you're forgotten west of Parramatta, try being west of the Blue Mountains, where projects even get stopped at a change of government.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, we still haven't got an airport rail link to the city.

@2:28 It's actually worse than that the fact that Sydney didn't build much new railway in 100 years - Sydney actually destroyed a lot of rail transport infrastructure in that time. Sydney used to have one of the biggest and busiest tram systems in the world until ripping it up in the 1950s, and there used to be more tracks built across the Harbour Bridge to North Sydney ready to take a new rail line that was going to be built to the Northern Beaches. Sydney also ripped up a train line in the SW to Camden, another in the West to Ropes Creek, another to Castle Hill, and the Richmond line used to be a few kilometers longer going all the way to the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Actually there are heaps of abandoned tunnels under Sydney that the Government could use but haven't for one reason or another. You can actually take tours under the city.

Glad to see you are smiling was a bit worried about you with your previous posts. This is a massive project and I love the names they give the drills. BMI is a brilliant engineering youtube channel, I watch it regularly.

Take heart USA usually follows our Ideas 5 or so years later Like Seat Belts, Breath Testing, and Rego plate recognition. Sydney was built up over 'goat tracks'. You can thank Noah for being faithful to the Lord because that is where the Sydney Basin (a coal seam which surfaces at Wollongong, Newcastle and Lithgow). That is vegetation instantly flooded and compressed causing coal, which has kept Sydney prosperous for centuries. But the Leaders are slow, because the tunnel under the Lane Cove River has an escape door which the Assistants on the driverless train setup are NOT TOLD ABOUT! (which will be interesting seeing the tunnel goes to over 60 mts below sea level) under the river. As for naming machines.. ... Ya better watch out, they might name one after YOU! 🙃🤣😅

Don’t know about the newer tunnels but the Sydney harbour tunnel was not a tunnel but was constructed off site and dumped in a trench under the water. These new tunnels were supposed to cost about $40 billion.

Melbourne's $200+ Billion Suburban Rail Loop project currently underway doesnt get a mention.

They need to do something about getting in and out of Parramatta. I also live in the Blacktown area but have to go to Parra for work and once a month I drive in. I get there really early so not so bad but come 3pm it's a nightmare to get out of Parramatta.

Voice Over Man has a British accent and the lady has an American accent while they are both talking about Sydney!

Back in the 60's the biggest mistake was when they got rid of the existing tram network.

Governments have been too afraid of spending money on public transport...all TBM's worldwide are named after women. there is a reason but i can't remember what it is...Fred (the guy in the B1M channel here) is usually pretty good but he forgot to mention the Eastern Suburbs line and the Airport line

The population of Australia is about 5 million less than texas and the wages are probably double in Australia..do you think texas could afford to build what Australia builds + 2x the wages ? Hope that answers your question why they havent built and the water is another problem that texas citys dont have.

All capital city traffic sux, our biggest problem is the cheapskates building the roads, they make them 2 lanes each way then 10 years later have to plan for 3 lanes, theyre doing that north brisbane at the moment, but now they have to reclaim about 50 properties that are 3 yrs old, a bit of forethought would have just not allowed them properties to be built to start with but thats what happens when government bean counters with no foresight or logic to consult town planners........just a cluster #&uck

Developers and governments are good at building development 1st for residential and commercial first but the infrastructure for transport. Roads and trains should be done 1st before land development.

0:53 "megaproject unrivalled in size and scope." Melbournes suburban rail loop says hi

What about Gladesville Bidge? And nothing for the Northern Beaches.

Hay y'all. I love train s and Lego train s but no train expert I just love them. But got like 8 so Lego train s for me Lego City that has a train Tunnle to 😊 .I have seen footage of this Tunnle. Very cool your husband is working their .

The reason big projects don't happen these days is because Politicians are short sighted and selfish, only caring about getting to and through the next 3-4 years to the next election. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was built with 8 lanes when there was only 80 cars in Sydney, but it was built as a 100 year life, the same as the National Highways, and Train Lines, and things like Dams and the Snowy River Scheme, Phone, Postal, Airports, Ports, etc.. They were called Nation Building Projects that had 50 year loans and 100 year life cycles. To show the selfishness, the last major Nation Building Project was supposed to be the NBN Network taking Fibre Optic Cables into every House and every Business across the whole Country, except for really remote one horse towns. The next Gumment gets in, removes billions, and then has to order 15,000kms of Copper Cables to replace the stuff that was laid 50-100+ years ago. So the nation has replaced 50 year old copper, with copper that will have a 50 year life cycle, instead of Fibre which in theory should last hundreds of years because data doesn't get much faster than the speed of light, and we now have one of the slowest networks even amongst some of the 3rd world countries.

It's crazy that we're spending $16 billion building new roads when we already know that roads can't solve the problem. The latent demand for driving is far greater than any number of roads could ever satisfy. The only way to move the numbers of people that we need to move is with more efficient modes of transport such as buses, trains, walking, scooting and cycling. And the way to get people out of cars an into / onto those other modes is by making driving less convenient, not more.

Whilst these vast infrastructures may be necessary, their downside is huge debt. Victoria is now in debt $125 billion compared to NSW $94 billion. Unfortunately, Victoria is now facing massive tax increases to service the debt. Good luck, Sydney.

Maybe they are so far away in order to get it all in.

The TBM's have protection against silicosis because the head does all the mining and then the spoil is pass by the workers who are in an air conditioned cabin. Only when the cutters have to be replaced or an issue occurs with the head do the workers have to go in to any sort of danger. The reason why the bench tops were banned was because of the workers direct contact with the dust and lack of appropriate breathing aparatus to protect those workers.

Be prepared - it will be triple over budget and years delayed, as usual in Australia. For miriads of Unplanned and Unavoidable reasons, from labor shortages to aboriginal sacred place (200 years old bones which no one cared about), from faulty welding (see SA Gawler train story) to new railcars not fit into tunnels (NSW new suburban trains). Even tram, simple surface light rail, had and has many problems. 200 years of absolute irresponsibility.

The Transport Department was very Sydney/North Sydney focused. All the boffins lived in close proximity to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Land was cheaper to the west and south but the bureaucrats planned for better services for themselves. So the cheaper areas became car centric. Private bus companies filled the transport gaps. Even staff who worked at Transport Head Office in the city had to drive to train stations to come into the city for work. This pushed the city-centric Government to develop rail corridor car parking at stations. They were very basic. Gradually, they are making them accessible. It all came to a head for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Buses were particularly necessary, which started a review of services, etc. Now we have bus lanes and transponders that trip green lights. The focus has moved to under-serviced areas. All the things they learned will be available in the Metro stations. It is gradually changing because voters in the Western suburbs can change loyalty within the next election cycle. So now politicians are trying to fix the negligence of previous decades. The history of infrastructure is that political heartland of one party promised projects and plans at one election but ignored or punished those areas that voted the other way. When the government changed hands, the neglected areas got transport and planning projects and the other areas were left in limbo.

To answer your question as to why it takes so long to get these projects done and why Sydney is so behind is due to one big reason, FUNDING. One of the drawbacks of federation is that the state governments have largely lost control of the majority of the revenue they collect from their own economies to the point where it’s at least 40% of the revenue is what they collect for their services in the state and have been largely dependent upon the federal government to provide the necessary funding to carry out these projects and so often the two governments have different ideas about what projects they want to pursue along with the priorities being made for the areas where there are marginal seats for an election and whether they want road, rail or other projects like sea ports or airports along with political parties that have one agenda when they come to power and then the other party when they are in power where there is some shady dealings that either leads to projects that end up being a white elephant or cancelled and mothballed. There’s also the problem with corruption that has sadly taken place where money is either spent to favour some people in power, wasted or stolen by shady individuals. There’s also another reason why and it’s because the state governments have resorted to selling money generating assets like ports, power lines and generators to fund some of these projects like the light rail project which is incredibly controversial. I hope this helps.

You want to talk about slow, the M1 from Sydney to Newcastle currently finishes at John Renshaw drive, Beresfield, This was completed in November of 1998 the M1 then picks up heading north at at hexham bridge on the hunter river. There is about a 2 1/2 kilometre of missing section of motorway between these two points and people have to use parts of the old pacific highway with a single lane entry to the bridge crossing the hunter river for people travelling north. It was only, and after many complaints, in 2023 the construction started to finish off this missing section including a new multilane bridge in both directions crossing the hunter river connecting up to Raymond terrace en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Motorway_(Sydney%E2%80%93Newcastle)

Dangereous yes, but that's why they get paid BIG bickies for doing it.

The Australian government takes forever to do everything.

Hyperbole. There, the. M5 the M9

Those of us west of Parramatta don't get much of the love 🤷

Hmmm. Every thing Sydney AGAIN.