True, having to change trains will be a bit of a disincentive for some though. With that factored in, probably 90 mins Newcastle to Sydney CBD, so much quicker than now (2 hrs 40 min) but not a whole lot quicker than by car (2 hrs).
There is also currently no direct line to Parramatta, Newcastle passengers now need to change trains at Strathfield, so a new link would need to be built from probably Epping, so we’d be looking sometime in 2030s before it’s operating.
I think the intention, if it gets off the ground, is that this will be a whole new line built mostly from scratch. In that respect it will take a very long time.
Everything can’t go to the first CBD, that is part of the problem with Sydney’s public transport, and why we have struggled to decentralise the city.
You also really can’t have the mindset of everything being a single seat journey.
Just make sure frequencies are high and the journey time is low. Sitting waiting 15-20 minutes for an interchange sucks, but a timed interchange 5 minutes or less, ideally cross platform but at most not needing to exit the station gates, can be far better than a slow single seat ride.
Title records obtained by Guardian Australia show Andrews and her husband, Chris, own a unit in a complex on the Gold Coast highway, along the proposed light rail route. Andrews made no mention of the property when announcing her opposition to the light rail extension.
Long-term residents and residential property owners have expressed concern that reducing the Gold Coast highway to a single lane in some places would create ongoing traffic problems. Construction works are expected to take several years.
The state government and the Gold Coast council say their preferred route is along the highway – three other options were ruled out because they would require property acquisitions to widen residential streets.
UPDATE
The Queen visited Paddington Station on Tuesday this week to officially open the line named in her honour.
A project that’s been almost half a century in the making, nice to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel(s)!
After cost blowouts and construction delays, the electrified Gawler line in Adelaide’s north will reopen for passenger service this Sunday, June 12. However Ovingham station will remain closed due to level crossing removal works.
A mixture of diesel and electric trains will run on the line until around mid 2023.
While the upgrade for the Central Coast section of Sydney-Newcastle rail line is welcome, there is another section of the line that urgently needs fixing. At the Hawkesbury River region, the tracks are just inches from Mullet Creek with no structures (levees etc.) in between. What happens during a king tide?
Services are replaced with coaches from Hornsby (as happened during recent king tide events). Humorously, the express nonstop coach to Newcastle is actually quicker than the train from memory.
This whole section (which is on the Hawkesbury system, not Brisbane Water FYI) will need total replacement if they are going to achieve the sorts of times they are throwing around. $1b is barely scratching the surface when you start looking at the sort of tunnelling and high level bridge that they would need to build over the Hawkesbury to enable a proper fast train service.
Really? 
Think you’ll find any bus replacement was for other reasons or weather events - NOT the king tide itself…
This has the potential to be a really good thing - we should be seeking intensification of development around public transport hubs (like train stations).
Caught the G Link Gold Coast Light Rail a few times today, and 95% of passengers were NOT wearing masks, despite the masks still being mandatory on public transport in QLD.
is that the only train service for the gold coast?
Most people on PT have given up wearing masks. At least here in Qld.
There’s the heavy rail line from Robina to Brisbane that’s a bit further inland.