The High Speed Rail Authority has publicly outlined plans that allow for some optimism that Australia could have these trains in the late 2030s.
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Shifting transport from air and road to sea and rail has untapped potential to slash emissions.
The only way to reduce soaring transport emissions is to shift as much travel as possible to the lowest-emission option.
Both major parties are promising major road projects this election. Meanwhile, the potential for passenger and freight rail to help meet the country’s climate goals seems stuck at the station.
Some 34 countries have high-speed rail or are about to get it. Yet since it was for proposed for Australia in 1984, no local plan for high-speed rail has got further than the drawing board.
Converting to electric cars is going to take time. With transport being Australia’s fastest-growing source of emissions, action on all fronts – road, rail, sea and aviation – is needed.
In addition to transport, Nigeria needs to pay more attention to logistics and supply chain management.
Regional NSW, home to a third of the state’s population, is still waiting for the promise of faster train travel to be delivered. Other states improved their regional services years ago.
The government’s plan to shake up the national rail system is ambitious. Whether it will be cheaper for the customer – and for the nation – remains to be seen
A high-speed rail network in Australia would create many benefits by reshaping cities and regional communities along its route.
Once again, the state looks intent on pressing ahead with a huge road project without releasing a business case. Among the many concerns is the failure to look at lower-emission alternatives.
The continued upward trend in our second-biggest source of emissions is a result of government inaction on a transport mix dominated by trucks and cars and a lack of fuel-efficiency standards.
Only the inner suburbs of Melbourne and other capital cities meet the 20-minute neighbourhood test. But we could transform the other suburbs for much less than the cost of current transport projects.
Electric trains use seven times less carbon dioxide than cars. With careful planning, railways could drastically cut emissions from a sector that now accounts for a quarter of the carbon in our air.
While called a transportation plan,
it was heavily skewed towards roads. We need the type of city-shaping thinking that underpinned the plan, but today’s plans must match 21st-century priorities.
Unsolicited market proposals are not transparently assessed. Infrastructure should be built to serve the public interest, not shaped by its private backers, but the checks to ensure this are broken.
A breakdown in the road or rail systems often causes commuter chaos in Australia. Some overseas cities are more resilient because they have other options – and our bicycle network could give us that.
While governments focus on how to ease congestion and make affordable housing more accessible for workers in our biggest cities, fast rail could be a mixed blessing for regional cities.
More than half a century after the first high-speed trains began running overseas, Australia is still waiting for the long-promised service. Right now, faster rail is a better short-term prospect.
The Commuter Car Park Fund announced in the budget sounds big, but is likely to create only around 30,000 extra spaces – a marginal benefit for Australia’s 1.2 million daily public transport users.
Top contributors
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Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Wollongong
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Senior Lecturer in Urbanism, University of Sydney
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Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University
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Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute
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Proprietor - Hale Consulting, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Transport Planning, The University of Melbourne
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Adjunct Professor, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor of Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne
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Professor and Director, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney
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Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Urban Policy and Director, Urban Futures Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University
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Research Associate, Newcastle University
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Professor of Environment and Planning, RMIT University
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Adjunct Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology
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PhD Candidate and Sessional Lecturer in Planning, The University of Melbourne
