Why Wollongong won't have a high speed rail stop

Because it's just not going to happen.

The Wollongong stop, I mean. The idea of a high speed rail line anywhere in Australia is up for grabs - it could happen, but it would be very, very expensive.

Over the weekend Labor leader Anthony Albanese threw out the promise of $500 million to go towards fast rail between Newcastle and Sydney.

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"If I'm elected Prime Minister, I want ours to be the first government that actually gets work under way on high-speed rail," Mr Albanese said.

"My vision is for high-speed rail that runs from Brisbane to Melbourne."

It's worth noting, the $500 million pledge isn't for high speed rail, but fast rail. The high speed component would come some years down the track, and would need much more than that $500 million.

Labor throwing its support behind high-speed rail is nothing new - the party has been going on about it for around a decade.

Way back in 2013, when Labor was in power and he was Regional Development Minister, Mr Albanese was spruiking high speed rail as a winner for regional Australia.

"With half of all high-speed rail users predicted to be people coming or going to a regional destination, the project could transform the lifestyles and employment opportunities of regional towns along the route," he said at the time.

Sounds great, right? Someone from Brisbane could hop on a train and be in Wollongong in next to no time (though the trip in the opposite direction is more likely).

But it won't happen. Previous suggested routes for high speed rail all veer away from the coast once they pass Sydney and head inland towards Canberra and then down through to Melbourne.

Under those routes, the closest stop to Wollongong is the Southern Highlands - around an hour away.

That's roughly the same travel time as a trip to Sydney Airport; it's a safe bet more holidaymakers would choose a plane over a train.

The reason Wollongong won't get a high speed rail stop no matter who builds the line is the same reason a trip on the existing Wollongong-Sydney service takes the same time as it did almost a century ago.

That is the topography of the Illawarra.

For a good while after white settlement, the escarpment protected the Illawarra because explorers had to find a way over or around it.

It's a similar story with the South Coast line - it has to skirt around areas of the escarpment, or use single-track tunnels 50 or more years old and creep over old railway viaducts.

Then there are the problems of twisty track; in Helensburgh, for instance, there is a series of S bends that were to help steam locomotives with the gradient.

These days a more direct route is possible because we have better trains.

It could all be fixed - if money was no object. But it isn't, and straightening track or drilling tunnels under the escarpment are massive - and expensive - exercises.

The best the NSW government can offer is "faster rail" - making small incremental changes, like adding a turning loop or improving signalisation so that trains can run closer together.

But those trains will still have to run on that decades-old alignment.

With the already high cost of establishing a high speed rail network, spending the extra dollars to bring it to Wollongong when there's an easier route through the Southern Highlands just doesn't make any sense.

Australia needs some form of high speed rail - it exists in 27 other countries, including Uzbekistan and Morocco - and the longer we wait the more expensive it becomes.

Whatever form it takes, it won't be coming to Wollongong.

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