AECOM Wins Environmental Advisory Role on Australia’s High Speed Rail

AECOM (ACM ) has been appointed Environmental Planning and Assessment Advisor for the Development Phase of the Australian Government’s Newcastle to Sydney High Speed Rail project, the company announced on August 25, 2026, working in partnership with lead partner bd infrastructure and specialist consultants Biosis, Artefact Heritage, and IRIS Visual Planning + Design. AECOM did not disclose the contract value.

The appointment is a client-side advisory role running through the project’s two-year Development Phase. The team will prepare environmental impact assessments, manage biodiversity and heritage approvals pathways, and develop the environmental strategy intended to leave the project ready for construction and an investment decision by the Australian Government. That framing matters for how the award books: this is development-phase professional services work on a project whose construction funding has not yet been committed, not a delivery contract.

“We are proud to have been selected for a project of this significance,” said Mark McManamny, chief executive of AECOM’s Australia and New Zealand region. “Together with bd infrastructure and our specialist partners, we’ve assembled a team with the experience needed to help navigate the environmental and planning challenges that come with a project of this scale.”

The planned line would connect Newcastle to Sydney on dedicated new track with trains capable of up to 320 kilometres per hour, as the first stage of an east coast network linking Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and regional communities. Ashley Lang, managing director of AECOM’s environment team in Australia and New Zealand, said the role is to get the environmental foundations right so the infrastructure can deliver regional connectivity, housing opportunity and economic growth.

Where the Award Sits in AECOM’s Book

The win lands two weeks after AECOM reported its third quarter fiscal 2026 results on August 10, 2026, in which total backlog rose 13% year over year to a record $27.8 billion on a 1.6 book-to-burn ratio and a record $4.2 billion in quarterly wins. The International segment, which houses Australia, grew net service revenue 4% with strength in the U.K. and Australian markets, and grew its own backlog 28% to a record.

The same quarter showed why the contract structure of an award matters as much as its size. AECOM took a $337 million pre-tax charge on a single Construction Management project bid in 2019 under terms the company says would not clear its current risk processes, dragging it to an $84 million net loss for the quarter. Client-side advisory and design work of the kind announced on August 25, 2026 sits in the lower-risk professional services book the company has been building toward; the design business alone posted a 1.6 book-to-burn ratio in the quarter. AECOM, a Fortune 500 firm, generated $16.1 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025.

The appointment extends a run of Australian transport work for the firm. AECOM was recently named Independent Certifier of The Wave – Stage 1, part of the Queensland Government’s 2032 Delivery Plan ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Lead Design Consultant for Stage 2 of the New Richmond Bridge in New South Wales.

Australia’s High Speed Rail Program So Far

The federal program has been building its institutional base for four years. The Albanese Government committed $500 million to the program and established the High Speed Rail Authority. On January 30, 2024, the government allocated 78.8 million Australian dollars for the initial Sydney to Newcastle business case, and on June 13, 2024 it awarded the tenders to produce it.

Fieldwork followed the paperwork. In August 2024 the authority began drilling nearly thirty boreholes for geotechnical investigations between Sydney and Newcastle. A May 6, 2026 industry briefing in Newcastle drew more than 700 people representing about 250 organisations from 17 countries, with train and tunnelling tenders issued alongside it. This month the authority appointed tunnelling and construction experts on August 17, 2026 and selected train manufacturers and suppliers on August 19, 2026, both for the Development Phase. The environmental advisory team announced on August 25, 2026 fills the approvals side of that roster.

The Project by the Numbers

• Up to 320 kilometres per hour: planned top speed of trains on the dedicated Newcastle to Sydney line.
• Two years: duration of the Development Phase the advisor team will serve.
• 78.8 million Australian dollars: federal funding released on January 30, 2024 for the initial Sydney to Newcastle business case.
• About 250 organisations from 17 countries: representation at the High Speed Rail Authority’s May 6, 2026 industry briefing.
• $27.8 billion: AECOM’s record total backlog at June 30, 2026, up 13% from a year earlier.

What Comes Next for Newcastle to Sydney

The advisor team’s deliverables now run on the Development Phase clock: environmental impact assessments, biodiversity and heritage approvals pathways, and the environmental strategy, all building toward the government’s investment decision at the end of the two-year phase. That decision, not this appointment, is the trigger that would convert the program from planning work into a construction pipeline. With train, tunnelling and environmental partners now all named for the phase, the authority’s remaining public milestones are the phase’s own outputs ahead of that call.