Top experts reveal concerns about Australia’s high-speed rail dream

A bullet train from Sydney to Melbourne would change how Aussies travel. But experts have revealed why they are concerned.

Top transport experts have revealed why they don’t think building high speed rail in Australia is a good idea, despite widespread support and studies proving it could drastically reduce travel times between the country’s biggest cities.

The idea of high speed rail in Australia has been debated for decades with a great deal of support by the general public.

A 2013 feasibility study estimated it’ll cost $130 billion to build a bullen train that would take Aussies 164 minutes — roughly two and a half hours — to travel from Sydney to Melbourne.

But the nation’s transport experts have now presented their thoughts on why having bullet train isn’t a feasible idea.

Grattan Institute’s Transport and Cities program director Marion Terrill told news.com.au podcast I’ve Got News for You that it would simply be too expensive to create a high speed rail network.

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It currently takes 11 hours to travel from Sydney to Melbourne on by rail. Picture: iStock

“Australians do love the idea of fast trains and I love fast trains too, but Australia is just not suited to high speed rail. And that‘s because our cities are too small and they’re too far apart. And I would also say it would be ruinously expensive,” she said.

“So what it would mean is, every taxpayer in the whole country would need to stump up$10,000 for a train that would primarily benefit business travellers between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.”

She said it would take too long to build an entirely new track to accommodate the bullet trains.

“The reason for that is because you need to build a dedicated track, it can’t run on the conventional track that we’ve got. So you’ve got to start again, that’s what a lot of countries have done, particularly China,” she said.

“And that means it takes well over 20 years to construct the whole thing from Brisbane to Melbourne. And so for that period, emissions will be much higher than they otherwise would be. So, you know, if we already had one, it would be great. But it does take a very long time to build. And it’s very emissions intensive while it’s being built.”

Wollongong University Associate Professor Phillip Laird suggested that a simple tweak to the current track could cut hours off the 11 hour and 960km rail journey between Sydney and Melbourne.

“If we were to build 200km of track to modern engineering standards, we could get rid of 260 km of steam age alignment, and faster freight. And we could put two trains on top, we could do it in about six hours,” Laird said.

“Fourteen years ago, I think you’d have done it for $2 billion — perhaps you’re looking more at $4 billion now as it needs to be costed by the authorities.”

When asked whether it was likely the federal government might adopt this suggestion, he sounded positive.

“It’s very early days, but the federal government has set up by legislation, our High Speed Rail Authority went through parliament late last year.

“And so (there’s) more serious interest in it now than we had from the previous government. But it remains to be seen which way they’ll go.”