One of New South Wales’ few remaining large railway yards has been put up for sale, with locals pushing for state and federal government intervention to reinvigorate the rail industry.
Lithgow’s locomotive workshop, owned by Pacific National and reported to have an asking price of $35m, includes maintenance pit bays and outbuildings. It was ceded to the freight operator in 2003 when the state privatised its freight services and has been little-used since.
Now, former railway workers, the local council and transport experts are fighting for the site to be revitalised. Lithgow is the last stop on Sydney’s electrified rail network and the start of inland freight routes, and the yard could deliver jobs and innovation to the regional hub, the proponents say.
Lithgow’s mayor, Cass Coleman, whose father and grandfather both worked for the railways in the city, said the 11.6-hectare site was a “wasted” resource with the potential to become the rail manufacturing capital of Australia.
She wants the state and federal governments to acquire the site as the community plans its transition from coalmining to a net zero future.
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According to the council, the coal mining and coal-fired power industry generates almost 50% of the city’s economic activity and about 1,100 jobs. But the nearby Mount Piper coal-fired power plant is due to close by 2040.
Coleman said people who worked at “the Loco” before privatisation remember the workshop in its busy heyday. She is worried that new private owners could view the site as an opportunity for land banking.
Dr Michelle Zeibots, a transport planner from the University of Technology Sydney’s school of civil and environmental engineering, said the rail workshop could be up and running in under a month, with minimal costs.
She said future lease holders could draw on local expertise and attract overseas talent, enabling more rail manufacturers to operate at scale in Australia.
According to state and federal policy mandates, all rail rolling stock must now have a 50% minimum Australian-made component. Zeibots said there was a shortage of maintenance facilities in NSW for key train components such as wheels and traction motors. Many of these are sent to Victoria for repair.
The 50% policy was implemented to avert problems such as those that beset intercity Mariyung trains, bought from South Korea. The rolling stock update cost more than $4bn with the trains too wide for some Sydney tunnels. The error was in part to blame for a five-year delay to their rollout.
Zeibots said she knew of at least one NSW train manufacturer unable to expand because of a lack of workshop space.
Separately, a Lithgow manufacturer had developed a pioneering solar-powered train that was attracting international attention and the company would like to use the site, she said.
“If we’re going to start doing a lot more manufacturing in Australia, then we need to have the railway workshop space in which to actually do it, and there’s currently a bit of a shortage.
“The Lithgow locomotive workshop site is a gift. Lithgow is a really clever and innovative industrial town that has been denied access to its essential infrastructure.”
In Zeibots’s view, Lithgow could become Australia’s centre for retrofitting diesel trains for a carbon-free future that doesn’t rely on what her research suggests will be fast-rising diesel costs.
“It’s all about the need to electrify the transport network and replace our reliance on diesel,” she said.
In a petition lodged with the NSW Legislative Assembly in February, more than 500 people asked the state government to bring the workshop back into active use.
In a statement, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union said multiple local rail manufacturing businesses were ready to start work but were unable to access the local rail infrastructure.
“The land and infrastructure at the Lithgow locomotive workshop bears opportunities in renewable and low emissions manufacturing, particularly in wind tower components and electric bus retrofitting,” the union said.
Alex Claassens, the secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, wrote that rail was “once the beating heart of Lithgow and served as a major local employer” in a letter supporting public ownership of the site sent to the NSW industry and innovation minister, Tim Ayres.
A spokesperson for the regional transport minister, Jenny Aitchison, told Guardian Australia on Friday that “the minister is aware of community calls for publicly funded acquisition of the locomotive rail yard workshop”.
“The site requires extensive and expensive environmental remediation that would require a significant investment to comply with safety and environmental standards,” the spokesperson said. “The issue is currently being considered within government.”
Pacific National’s parent entity suffered a $656.7m loss in 2023-24, according to the most recent financial accounts lodged with the corporate regulator.
