THE NSW government is planning a major rail maintenance facility for Hunter line trains in a known flood area after Wyong Shire Council threatened "political level" opposition to a facility on a council-owned site, documents show.
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Kangy Angy residents are demanding answers after Transport for NSW documents showed it did not rank the tiny rural Central Coast pocket in its top three preferred sites in August, 2014.
Kangy Angy was only considered after the council strongly objected to a facility on its proposed Warnervale education and business park site, and raised Kangy Angy as an alternative where the council owns land.
Outraged residents say Transport for NSW is pushing ahead with the proposal despite major obstacles, including the area's known flood history and Kangy Angy's only access point - a railway underpass that has already been impassable twice this year because of flood waters.
"We just want an answer to the question - why would you build it here?" said Michelle Nicholson, who has lived at her Kangy Angy acreage for 11 years.
"A family is being forced out of their home and compulsory acquisition of land is taking place for other residents. The rest of us will be forced to live next door to an industrial monstrosity that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We will have trains running past our backyard, metres from where my children play," she said.
Transport for NSW said Kangy Angy was chosen as preferred site for the proposed New Intercity Fleet maintenance facility in part because of the need to be operational when the first of the new fleet starts service in 2019.
The new trains will be diverted off the main northern line between Sydney and Newcastle for maintenance and cleaning in a facility about 250 metres long.
Transport for NSW started the compulsory acquisition process on several properties in 2014. It is yet to start design, environment and planning studies.
Kangy Angy resident Ross Ferrier described the choice of Kangy Angy as ridiculous because of the area's significant flood events, and the need for an alternative access route at least one kilometre long and metres above a known flood plain.
"They've done no technical studies, and they don't appear to even be considering photos we've shown them that clearly demonstrate the extent and severity of flooding," Mr Ferrier said.
"I've got 27 acres but my house is on the one acre that doesn't flood. I get more than two metres of water on my place, and a flood like that happens every couple of years."
Engineer Neil Bolte, whose property also regularly floods, raised more than 20 questions in an email to Transport for NSW after assessing the Kangy Angy site against other alternatives considered by the department.
"Could you please explain what spectacular features exist on the Kangy Angy site that makes it the ideal location over all the other sites considered by your department?" he said.
Transport for NSW said the "challenges of the Kangy Angy site" were "routine for rail infrastructure projects".
