Guardian sustainable business

Why are we still waiting for high-speed rail between Sydney, Melbourne and
Brisbane?

   A high-speed rail network would radically reduce emissions, connect
   regional and urban areas, create jobs and enhance investment. So why
   the hold-up?
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   Why can’t Australia have a high speed rail network like the one
   proposed for California?

   [ ] Why can’t Australia have a high-speed rail network like the one
   proposed for California (above in artist’s impression)? Photograph: hrs

   With the government conducting a hearing into the benefits of
   high-speed rail last week, Labor’s Anthony Albanese submitting a
   private member’s bill to parliament, and former Liberal minister Andrew
   Robb supporting such a project, the time is right to approve and start
   building a much needed high-speed rail system in Australia that would
   link 60% of the population and slash our greenhouse gas emissions.

   With the Turnbull government supposedly committed to tackling climate
   change head on, and with the prime minister embracing technology,
   innovation and disruption, high-speed rail is a zero-emissions form of
   transport that would radically reduce our emissions, connect our
   regional and urban areas, create jobs and enhance investment.

   So what are we waiting for? Whereas Japan, Germany and other European
   countries have had high-speed rail for decades, this project always
   seemed to get blocked by two issues in Australia: perceived high cost
   and perceived lack of demand. Let’s break both of these issues down.
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   The oft-cited perception is that high-speed rail costs too much. But
   how much does it cost and how does this compare with other transport
   options?

   The previous Labor government commissioned a report that showed a
   high-speed rail network connecting Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and
   Brisbane would cost $114bn. A study by Beyond Zero Emissions showed it
   would cost $84bn. A further study by the Australasian railway
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   the $18bn federal and state/territory governments spend on roads each
   year, it would take just over four years of road funding to build
   high-speed rail connecting our east-coast cities.

   Demand is the other argument. According to critics, Australia doesn’t
   have the density of population or the demand to fill those high-speed
   rail carriages. Given Sydney to Melbourne is the world’s fifth busiest
   air route, and Sydney to Brisbane the world’s 13th busiest, maybe there
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   route, so there is certainly the density of population. And the
   distances between Sydney and Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane have
   been shown to be perfect for take up of high-speed rail in many
   countries around the world. Travelling those distances by high-speed
   rail takes about three hours, which is more time-competitive than air
   travel. By the time we’ve caught a taxi to the airport, gone through
   security and waited for the flight, we would be more than halfway along
   our high-speed rail journey, which also connects us at the city centre
   and with other forms of public transport such as local trains, trams
   and buses.
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   will last many generations and many election cycles.

No ifs, no buts: Australia needs high-speed rail | Anthony Albanese

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   One other misconception is that governments would have to cover the
   full costs of building high-speed rail. With high-speed rail being a
   commercial proposition, the private sector can meet the majority of the
   costs. Even Andrew Robb admitted last week that several international
   firms had offered to pay for the project.

   High-speed rail is a commercially viable project that is not dissimilar
   to building a toll road in terms of the financial model that can be
   deployed. Under the toll road scenario, governments approve the
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   time by charging a fee to users.

   A high-speed rail project can use a similar financial model. The study
   by Beyond Zero Emissions showed for the first time that the capital
   costs of high-speed rail could be repaid over a 40-year time frame,
   making it a commercially attractive proposition not dissimilar to a
   toll road. Land costs are relatively low (about 5% of total costs), and
   construction costs are about $40bn. By charging high-speed rail
   passengers slightly less than the weighted average price for air travel
   between our capital cities, the capital could be repaid in a