Mark Carter

THE Australian federal government published its 2016-17 budget on May 3 and while transport investment is heavily skewed towards road projects, a decline in future funding for rail foreshadowed in the 2015-16 federal budget appears to have been reversed, albeit marginally.

THE government of the Australian state of Victoria published its 2016-17 budget on April 27, making provision for numerous rail projects and allocating more than $A 3.2bn ($US 2.4bn) to improve public transport.

A consortium including Lend Lease, CPB Contractors, WSP Parsons Brinkerhoff, and Aurecon has signed a $A 1.6bn ($US 1.2bn) contract with the government of the Australian state of Victoria for works associated with the upgrade of the Cranbourne-Pakenham commuter line.

The government of the Australian state of New South Wales has announced the start of the tender process to build twin-bore railway tunnels under Sydney Harbour and the city centre for Stage 2 of the Sydney Metro project.

THE government of the Australian state of Queensland has announced it will establish an authority to oversee the development of the Cross River Rail project with the aim of increasing capacity and reducing congestion on the Brisbane Citytrain network.

CIMIC subsidiary CPB Contractors (formerly Leighton Contractors) has been awarded a contract to construct Queensland's Gold Coast Light Rail Stage Two and complete the 7.3km extension in time for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

GLOBAL mining conglomerate Glencore is looking to sell its New South Wales Hunter Valley 'above-rail' coal haulage rail business later this year, with an anticipated price tag of between $A 800m-1bn ($US 610-763m), according to a report in Australia's Financial Review newspaper.