Political Tarot
High speed rail is finally getting some press again, after it appeared to disappear there for a while what with all the spin and lies from the Coalition that desperately needed reporting. Finally, however, it’s back in the news.
Wouldn’t this look great speeding across Australia?
Photo credit: Railway20
The high speed rail proposal comes in response to rapidly worsening congestion on our urban roads, the increasing population and need to reduce carbon emissions. Australia’s east coast bears much of the national congestion problem, housing 60 per cent of the population. High speed rail is supported by both major parties and the Greens (gosh!).
A study obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald argues that at speeds of 350km per hour, high-speed rail would allow travel from Sydney to Melbourne – the third busiest air corridor in the world – in three hours and lesson the need for a second airport in Sydney.
Released jointly by AECOM, one of the world’s experts on modelling fast trains for governments, and Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), the study “urges the government to identity the new routes and then buy the land or put in place planning protections to ensure future land price rises don’t make a high-speed rail network a prohibitive option”.
Most European countries have had high speed rail for several years and Japan’s ‘”bullet train” (shinkansen) has been servicing the country since the 1960s. More high-speed rail continues to be rolled out in Europe, China and Morocco. Brazil’s rail proposal is currently at the tendering stage.
Proposals to build a high-speed rail network in Australia have been considered by the private sector since the mid-1980s, but we have always just missed out. A high speed rail was being considered by the Rudd Government before the Global Financial Crisis hit.
High speed rail is much needed in Australia. It is time that we stopped dithering, got on with it and caught up to the rest of the world…and it’ll be just the thing if you’re scared of flying.
Post Link: http://politicaltarot.com/2010/09/high-speed-rail-a-real-possibility/
