Is Australia’s fast train plan finally speeding up?

AUSTRALIA’S fast train dream could be one step closer with the PM due to receive a mysterious proposal.

AUSTRALIA’S fast train dream could be one step closer with the prime minister due to receive a mysterious proposal from a company saying it will “reshape Australia”.

Melbourne-based company Consolidated Land and Rail Australia has a meeting scheduled to make an “unsolicited offer” to link Melbourne and Sydney with a fast train line.

Further details of the plan were unavailable on the low-profile company’s website, which consists of only “coming soon” placeholders, and a countdown timer to when “CLARA will reshape Australia”.

The website was registered in October 2015 by Geoff Moore, a director at Whitehaven Investment firm.

Mr Moore was unavailable for comment when contacted by news.com.au, but a colleague confirmed he was one of the directors of the elusive company.

Very mysterious.

The cost of CLARA’s proposal is unknown. A 2013 report commissioned by the Gillard government predicted a high speed rail network, connecting Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, would be budgeted at around $114 billion. An independent report released the following year found a similar route could be built for $84 billion.

Labor’s transport spokesman Anthony Albanese reintroduced a private members bill to parliament earlier this month calling for a national authority to oversee plans towards making the high-speed rail a reality. The proposal came as former trade minister Andrew Robb said international investors were ready to throw money at the project.

Mr Turnbull last week committed the government’s support for a fast rail link from Sydney’s CBD to the city’s second airport planned for Badgerys Creek.

Australia is currently the only continent — with the exception of Antarctica — without fast trains of our own.