High Speed and Fast Rail

[Stillwater]

perfect perspective from The Age.   

The research ....

"Maglev makes possible high-speed, high capacity travel with potentially low operating costs and convenient access. Yet, despite these attributes, U.S. firms have been reluctant to invest in the technology. Maglev's development risks, large capital cost, and uncertain market response are likely reasons for this reluctance.

"The French-built TGV (train à grande vitesse) offers a proven, commercially successful 83-m/s service, and this service is available for the U.S. with essentially no development risk."

http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/8000/8800/8854/Chap1%2B2(p1_16).pdf

[ozbob]

The Conversation --> High-speed rail? At $200 billion we'd better get it right

[ozbob]

Apart from the initial ' puff-pieces ' most critical observers now can identify the fantasy nature of this CLARA proposal in the end.

Scant detail and a funding methodology that even on surface analysis collapses.

Next ..

If they really want to make a fast buck, hit the routes that there is demand.  Eg. Sydney - Newcastle, Sydney - Canberra, Brisbane - Gold Coast. Then one day it could all link up.  This is the only way it could happen IMHO.

[#Metro]

Peter Newman is correct that CLARAs proposal misses key regional centres. However, adjusting the proposal will obviously mean that the value capture model immediately breaks down. Unless CLARA is going to buy out the cores of these regional centres and then string the rail line through, the value will be captured ... wait for it ... by other private developers and landowners.

Why bother doing all that work only for bags of cash to land in someone else's back (or front) yard? Private companies and investors absolutely hate that. This is why the government is better positioned to do this project because land value tax and council rates (based on land values) capture this automatically as increased revenue when land valuations are revised. At a minimum, a deal would have to be struck between the private HSR proponent and the government agreeing to share a portion of the tax increase collected for this to work.

The other issue is that the value of land is simply the sum of its expected future income. If landowners get wind of the potential increase in value of their land, they will jack up the price of it. Rail lines require rather straight stretches so it will be hard for CLARA to say no to a landholder and reroute the railway to avoid a contested land parcel. In contrast, government has compulsory acquisition powers. If your property is hit with resumption order, most people would not touch it with a 10 ft pole and you as landholder would have difficulty selling it. The land value would be locked by this process.

Newman says that building new towns on greenfield areas are a 'failed' idea, but I'm not sure on what criterion Newman thinks that they are 'failed'. Almost all Australian cities were centrally planned by directive:

Foundation of Melbourne and Batman's Treaty

When he found the current site of central Melbourne, he noted in his diary of 8 June 1835, "This will be the place for a village."[2][4][19] and declared the land "Batmania".[20][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Batman

It just might be 50 or 100 or 150 years before anything significant springs up there, and remember, many towns have been around for that long and stayed towns - i.e. Albury.

Peter Newman then lists off some really vague statements:

Benefit-cost assessments should include long-term urban and sustainability goals.

What does this mean?

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) should include core commitments to community engagement, integrated public transport delivery, equitable and time-of-travel-dependent fare structures, safety, consumer and environmental protection, and urban design quality.

What does this mean? Is he suggesting a TransLink style HSR planner that sets the fares but has a private operator build and deliver services? Airlines aren't organised this way, so why do it for HSR?

Also, adding frills like this increases cost, massively.

The projects should not just be innovative in financing and PPP delivery but be agile enough to include disruptive innovations such as solar PV-based electric rail, new carbon fibre and other materials, very smart systems for control at high speed, and effective noise management.

And solar also? Sorry, but this sounds like turning HSR into an expensive experimental freakshow.

If Peter Newman wants to see his idea enacted in the "right way" he should form his own HSR development corporation and show us how it is done. Advice is always good when its someone else's money at risk.

[Stillwater]

The more there are distractions like this around HSR, governments can take comfort in pausing and doing nothing on the things that will work.  They can say things like 'there is an exciting new proposal on the table from the private sector and we should explore all options for making that work first, before taxpayer funds are expended on this issue.'

[ozbob]

Singapore and Malaysia sign high-speed rail agreement - opening scheduled for "around 2026" https://t.co/fghuZFos7r pic.twitter.com/gqKkhZAnPP

— IRJ (@railjournal) July 19, 2016

[ozbob]

China's "most profitable" high-speed rail finally makes profithttps://t.co/xrLPE05GVN

— WSJ China Real Time (@ChinaRealTime) July 20, 2016

[#Metro]

Let's see.

Construction cost: $32 billion USD
"profit" $1 billion USD

1/32 x 100 = 3.12% return.

It is good that it covers operating costs and some.
Though parking your cash in an online bank account would earn as much.

[ozbob]

I think there is a message here for the HS Oz rail fantasy hey what?

If China, with massive population struggles to return profit, not much show for Oz land is there in the end? 

We need to focus on what we can achieve, regional rapid rail is the go!  Tap into the existing demand. 

Time Oz moved on from fantasy ..

[#Metro]

Why would a private company bother when it could just dump the cash in the bank, no risk of it disappearing, do no work, and get 3% versus go through years of pain and huge risk and get 3% also.

Another thing to look at is the fact that this is China. There might be special deals for gov't owned projects like ultra low-interest rates on borrowings, free/below market rate land, low labour costs, low safety/environmental regulation and suchlike.

We are also not told if the profit is gross profit or net profit (after corporate income tax is paid). Perhaps if it is state owned it might not pay any tax at all. How realistic is that in an Australian operation??

[ozbob]

The Conversation --> High speed rail plan still needs to prove economic benefits will outweigh costs

The CLARA private consortium claims a high speed rail network between Sydney and Melbourne could be paid for at no cost to the government through a technique known as value capture. What is still not clear is whether there will be enough value created by the project to capture in order to pay for the project.

Value capture is well established techniques used by governments to offset some of the costs of new transport infrastructure, for instance the taxes paid on apartments built near a new train station help to offset the cost of the transport investment. The taxes paid by warehouses or factories built near new freeways are another good example of value capture.

CLARA's proposal is that the high speed rail can be paid for by purchasing land cheaply in regional New South Wales and Victoria then developing a string of new towns alongside the High Speed Railway. The sale of land would fund the High Speed Railway's construction and the new residents would provide patronage for the railway.

This form of development was once common place with the suburban railways of London and the urban railways of Tokyo and Hong Kong being the most famous examples. However, this sort of value capture by private investors is much rarer today and unprecedented on this scale.

The first stage proposal involves a A$13 billion link from Melbourne to the Greater Shepparton region of Northern Victoria, the full link to Sydney with a branch to Canberra would cost many times this much. The CLARA consortium is claiming the exact figure as commercial in confidence, but a cost of around $200 billion has been suggested in the media.

CLARA haven't released the full business case for the network but value of the project can be assessed by its benefits and whether or not the project will capture them.

High speed rail creates benefits for two types of travellers, longer distance commuters and intercity travellers. Previous proposals for high speed rail have floundered in Australia because the benefits to intercity travellers have just not been enough to justify the costs of developing and running it.

Australian cities are just too far apart for a high speed rail to be competitive on travel time and fares with aviation. Perhaps this will change over the 40 years that it will take to build the network but there is no evidence that this is happening at the moment.

Unlike previous plans, CLARA is emphasising the potential of the longer distance commuter market (e.g. Canberra or Goulburn to Sydney). There is a developing market for commuting by High Speed Rail in the UK amongst other countries.

There is no doubt that high speed rail would be faster over these sorts of distances than the alternatives (ordinary rail, coaches, private car) although it might be a challenge to schedule high speed intercity services alongside slower commuter services and building dedicated high speed rail lines into the Central Business Districts of Sydney and Melbourne will be very expensive. These travellers will gain benefits from a faster service and also from being able to purchase houses in more affordable regional areas.

Land prices are a capitalisation of the benefits that accrue to people who use that land. In the case of residential land, it reflects the benefits to be had in terms of access to schools, jobs, recreation facilities, etc.

Improved transport services reduce the time it takes to get to existing jobs and activities plus makes it possible to travel to additional jobs and activities within a reasonable time and, finally, encourages new jobs and activities to be created through the process of economies of scale and agglomeration.

Some of these benefits accrue to the travellers, others to the owners of the businesses who can hire from a bigger pool of potential employees and service a bigger pool of customers. Because of these benefits travellers and businesses bid up the price of land in places near the improved transport services thus sharing the benefits with the land owners (and with governments in the form of the taxes paid on income, property transactions and developments). It is this increase in land that CLARA hopes to tap into to fund the new high speed rail.

This project will only be successful if the new rail service generates enough benefits and this will only happen if people really will be prepared to pay higher fares for high speed rail or prefer lower fares on traditional train services from cities closer in (i.e. Wollongong). If not, will governments have to ban development in other cities to force people to move to CLARA's townships in order to support the developers of the HSR?

Value capture is a rediscovered form of financing major projects that could prove an innovative source of funds but it does not remove the need for a project's benefits to exceed its costs.

[ozbob]

Travel + Leisure --> New Bullet Train Will Go From Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in 90 Minutes

Singapore and Malaysia have signed an agreement to build a high-speed rail line between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which they hope will be up and running by 2026. The bullet train would make the trip in about 90 minutes—much faster than the current train travel time of five hours.

"One can have breakfast in Kuala Lumpur, lunch in Singapore, and be back in time for dinner in Kuala Lumpur," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a joint news appearance.

If that means a breakfast of nasi goreng and bubur ayam, sign us up.

The new rail system will vastly improve transit options between the two bustling urban centers. And improvement is long overdue: The bullet train was first proposed in 2013, with a planned completion date of 2020.

"The Singapore-Malaysia sector has among the largest airline capacity within the region," said Bloomberg Intelligence's Singapore-based transport analyst John Mathai. "A high-speed rail could service some of the traffic within that segment, reducing congestion at airports."

Flying between the two cities takes about 45 minutes, not including time spent traveling to and from the airports.

While Japan has been running bullet trains for fifty years (they built the world's first high-speed train, The Shinkansen, way back in 1964), it has taken other Asian nations longer to jump on board. In addition to new super-fast trains in China, there are also plans for high-speed rail in Indonesia, and Japan is helping India build its first bullet train.

[Gazza]

Let's see.

Construction cost: $32 billion USD
"profit" $1 billion USD

1/32 x 100 = 3.12% return.

It is good that it covers operating costs and some.
Though parking your cash in an online bank account would earn as much.

What benefits to society come from parking your cash?

[#Metro]

What benefits to society come from parking your cash?

What happens to money put in the bank Gazza?

The bank takes it and loans it out to people who want to build homes or start businesses.

If the BCR for a project is below 1, that suggests that the project is destroying more value than it is creating and that it is inefficient at what it does.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/8231946

Excerpt.

"You may think that when you take some cash to a bank to a bank and deposit it,
the bank takes that money and sticks it in a vault somewhere to wait until you need
it again to turn it back over to you."

"The bank does no such thing."

"It immediately takes a large part of that money and immediately lends that out to someone
else."

"How do you suppose it earns interest to pay its expenses or to pay you something for the
use of your money?"

It is also possible to "park cash" by buying a government bond, such as those the Queensland Treasury Corporation sells. Bonds are typically low yield but regarded as a safe investment and thus attractive to super funds and retirees. (NB: Not giving investment advice here). That is another way of how gov't can have money for the projects it wants to do.

[tazzer9]

Another safe method to park money is to buy something physical that won't lose value.  Property, gold etc.

[#Metro]

Another safe method to park money is to buy something physical that won't lose value.  Property, gold etc.

A good point. Though I think Gazza was more interested in money that "did stuff" rather than just hold its value.

HSR in the Australian context is a national want, not a national need. HSR supporters have also framed the debate around "trains vs planes" for status / visionary reasons rather than the more mundane but practical "trains vs lanes". There is nothing inherently wrong with having 'visions', but when that does not work with The Basics ^(TM) then credible delivery is going to be a problem (as our good Lord Mayor is about to find out...) 

Simple facts such as -

1. Cars are limited to 100-110 km/hr. Trains can do 2x-3x this speed.
2. A freeway lane is limited to 1500 - 2000 pphd, whereas trains can do 10x this capacity
3. A freeway lane is inherently unreliable - a single accident can shut down a motorway and clog it for many kilometres. Peak hour, when the capacity is needed most, also suffers from congestion.
4. People have a predictable travel time budget for commuting of around 1 hr per day.

- suggest that Regional Rapid Rail (RRR) is a better alternative for the Australian context. I recognise there is a lot of comparison and perhaps "China envy" seeing fast trains zooming around, but seriously:

The paper notes that construction cost of high speed rail in China tends to be lower than in other countries. China's high speed rail with a maximum speed of 350 km/h has a typical infrastructure unit cost of about US$ 17-21m per km, with a high ratio of viaducts and tunnels, as compared with US$25-39 m per km in Europe and as high as US$ 56m per km currently estimated in California.

Costs in Australia for bog standard rail are around 10x per km than in China. US$ 17-21m per km might get you BRT in Australia at best.

It is also not quite correct to suggest that HSR has an advantage because it doesn't require security screening like at airports. It is entirely possible that such screening could be introduced to a HSR system and particularly if "important people" start using it due to Canberra being a destination on the network.

Cost of High Speed Rail in China One Third Lower than in Other Countries
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/07/10/cost-of-high-speed-rail-in-china-one-third-lower-than-in-other-countries

[ozbob]

The MAGLEV 2016 conference in Berlin:

The program is out!https://t.co/ZmhBcc7ayw#maglev #hyperloop #hst pic.twitter.com/DQkM1FYTHi

— maglevboard (@maglevboard) August 12, 2016

[ozbob]

Shanghai Maglev 2015
>

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> Hyperloop technology could revolutionise transport in Australia

FORGET High Speed Rail — the future of fast transport in Australia could be the Hyperloop.

The revolutionary system, being developed in the United States, will enable passengers to travel at near the speed of sound in pods hurtling through vacuum tubes over huge distances.

A trip from Brisbane to Sydney would take just under an hour using the futuristic technology, while the journey between the Queensland capital and Melbourne could be completed in 1 hour 52 minutes – both much quicker than a flight.

A dash between the Gold Coast and Brisbane could be done in nine minutes.

With speeds up to 1220km/h, Hyperloop would be four times faster than High Speed Rail and could also be used to move freight rapidly around the nation. ...

[#Metro]

With speeds up to 1220km/h,

Skype is faster. 

[SurfRail]

How in the hell do they plan on maintaining vacuum in 1,000s of km worth of tubes?  With the amount of energy required I half expect you could just teleport things.

The whole thing is utterly inane.

[ozbob]

Future of transport: Hyperloop could see us all living in one capital city, and working in another. #TenNews https://t.co/5Wmayd61lc

— TEN Eyewitness News (@channeltennews) September 11, 2016

[ozbob]

Get a grip media ..

Scientist Lays Out 5 Huge Problems With Elon Musk's Hyperloop

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/26/scientist-lays-out-5-huge-problems-with-elon-musks-hyperloop-video/

1: If Anything Goes Wrong, Everybody Dies

2: Its Probably Physically Impossible To Build The Hyperloop

For the Hyperloop to work, it would need a way to pump out roughly 2 million cubic meters of air from its tubes and make sure that the air stays out of a 373 mile-long pipe with walls less than an inch thick. In comparison, the world's largest vacuum chamber only pumps out about 1.5 percent as much air and requires enormous amounts of structural reinforcement.

Making a vacuum chamber that long would be a huge technical challenge, as the pressure of the air outside the tube would push against the tube with the force of roughly 10 tons per square meter. That's a huge amount of force to place on a steel tube with walls less than an inch thick. The tube would also have to take the vibration force of a 15 ton capsule going through it at the speed of sound. Merely creating such an enormous near-vacuum chamber and the infrastructure necessary to pump out all the air could be impossible.

3: Heat Would Destroy The Hyperloop's Track

4: Hyperloop Would Be Incredibly Vulnerable To Terrorism

5: The Hyperloop Will Probably Cost WAY More Than Its Formal Estimates

=================

The costs would be massive. 

It will never happen for a real system, but an intriguing novelty.

[Stillwater]

I won't redesign the garage just yet ...... note how every vid showing Maglev has it running on a dead level track.  We just need to flatten the Great Dividing Range to make it work.

[ozbob]

LOL

Scientist Lays Out 5 Huge Problems With Elon Musk's Hyperloop [VIDEO] https://t.co/Qfov4JwBg6 via @dailycaller #auspol hey ho ..

— Robert Dow (@Robert_Dow) September 11, 2016

[#Metro]

Just take a plane! A PLANE people!

What's not to like about a plane?

[tazzer9]

This is a nice one for Ozbob.

http://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/7-aussie-towns-that-we-could-get-rid-of-with-a-high-speed-railway/

28/10/2016. 7 Aussie Towns That We Could Get Rid Of With A High­Speed Railway – The Betoota Advocate


When you combine the most crowded flight path in the world
(BNE>SYD>MEL), with the fact that Sydney Airport is now
subject to a 11pm curfew imposed by rapidly gentrifying local
council, home to people who feel entitled to complain about the
fact that they can hear aeroplanes from their bedroom in a house
they bought next to an airport... Australia's air traffic is
getting out of control.
Enter the recurring pre­election high­speed rail conversation.
Labor is saying yes, but mainly because the Coalition is saying
"not sure wbu"
It's easy to talk about, but its going to be hard to implement.
A high­speed railway from Brisbane to Melbourne, via Sydney,
would require a lot of land clearing. And in the most populated
seaboard of Australia, this could easily result in the loss of
several townships, both inland and coastal.
7Aussie Towns That We Could Get Rid
Of WithA High‑Speed Railway
Schoolies Week is the first and last time that most
Australians visit the Gold Coast.


Here are the 7 Australian towns that The Betoota
Advocate feels could use a high­speed rail line going
through the middle of them.

1. Goodna, QLD
ABOVE: The Goodna RSL ‐ this marvel of architecture is the best thing about Goodna
Goodna is a sh%thole town on the eastern edge of the City of
Ipswich in Queensland, Australia.
The area is famous for pioneering the mohawk­mullet style
haircut (Karmicheal Hunt circa. 2003)
Goodna sits on Jaggera land, the original Aboriginal grouping
being the Yerongpan people. Goodna was a much better place
before white settlement. Goodna is the type of place where local
residents loot local businesses during a flood.

2. Gosford

Gosford made headlines recently when Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull vowed to never catch public transport again after
arriving at the Central Coast index station.
"This place is fu%ked" said Malcolm Turnbull, while working hard
to avoid puncturing the double leather sole of his RM Williams
boots on discarded syringes.
Any town that spends thirty years unsuccessfully bidding for a
new NRL franchise to be relocated there, is worthy of Bullet Train
lobotomy

3. Byron Bay
ABOVE: Privileged white people have find a way to live life without responsibility

As the Betoota Advocate has pointed out before, Byron Bay's
actual residents receive quite a bad wrap from outsiders, mainly
due to the transient community that exists alongside them.
Underachieving expatriated city youths make up 60% percent of
the population, and very few of them have relocated there for
work. The faux­hippy lifestyle has created a damaging sense of
entitlement in the community, and we are sure that at the core of
this lazy coastal town, sits a community that would love to see a
good portion of the 'cute little beach shacks' flattened to make way
for a very fast train.
The noise generated by high speed rail would also be welcomed, as
much needed respite over the bongo drums and horrible ukulele
renditions of Xavier Rudd.

4. Lithgow

The main street of Lithgow. A town Laurie Oakes no longer associates himself with
As things stand, Lithgow essentially is just one big glorified train
station anyway. That is, unless you are a prison officer or prison
inmate. Otherwise there is no real reason to be in Lithgow.
The town has not really been able to top its brief flutter in the
spotlight after former­resident and national sprinter Marjorie
Jackson­Nelson AC, CVO, MBE won two Olympic and seven
Commonwealth Games Gold Medals, six individual world records
between 1950­1954
"The Lithgow Flash" as she was colloquially known, is just one of
many products of the town who is good at running. However,
unlike most residents, she was never seen sprinting with a LED
flatscreen over he shoulder.

5. Ballarat

The name Ballarat is derived from a local Wathaurong Aboriginal
word for the area, balla arat, thought to mean "resting place".
After countless industrial rebellions, Aboriginal massacres,
institutionalised pedophile rings (see: Royal Commission into
Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse) and now a
gripping Crystal Meth plague. We pose the question, it time for
this town to be bulldozed from the Earth completely?
Should it in fact become the resting place it's first owners intended
it to be?
Of course the current 90,000 residents would have to migrate to
capital cities for this to happen, but most of the town's youth were
planning on doing that anyway.

6. Cronulla

The fact that the Cronulla Shire is home to Australia's last
segregated public toilet is probably enough to warrant the fact that
this town no longer deserves to exist. That, and the fact that their
residents aren't really ashamed of the 2006 race riots they hosted,
which exposed our country to national ridicule.
Also, anyone who was unlucky enough to experience even a few
minutes of the short­lived Channel 10 reality program "The Shire"
would agree that the people down there aren't exactly curing
cancer.

7. The Gold Coast

The Shire is an interesting place. We spoke to local man Sharryd Clayne,
about many different things. We don't exactly know what we learnt from
him, but we learnt something. #SOS #TheShire
5.8k 5.1k 6.3k
Posted by Streets of Sydney
476,038 Views

Often described as "The dud pinger of Australia" – The Gold Coast
really does live up to all the horrible things that get said about it.
It's a shortlived high for people who want to go on a bit of trip and
feel like they aren't at home.
The reason they won't feel like they are at home is because The
Gold Coast is a hypocritical sh%thole, that, despite the countless
meth labs and strip clubs, has decided to not allow any the
construction of any Mosques. In an attempt to preserve their
moral fibre of their community.
Schoolies Week is the first and last time that most Australians visit
the Gold Coast.
So there you have it! Please contact us at
Editor@BetootaAdvocate.com if you would like to
nominate your own town to be torn apart by the new high
speed rail.
This story, among many others appears in our inaugral Betoota
Advocate Round Up, If you would like to purchase a copy ahead
of Christmas, visit Booktopia now!

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> New model for High Speed Rail could fast-track project without cost to taxpayers

LONG-stalled plans for High Speed Rail could be fast-tracked at no cost to taxpayers, with a link to the Sunshine Coast and Noosa under discussion.

Federal MP and former ­tennis great John Alexander, who headed an ­inquiry into transport and ­regional development, believes HSR could help solve the housing affordability crisis.

"We all agree now this is a real estate deal," he said.

The inquiry's report looks at using a "value capture model" for HSR to open vast tracks of land to development via quick connection to our major cities, driving decentralisation and reducing congestion.

Under current HSR plans, Brisbane to Lismore would take 40 minutes. Once expanded, Noosa would be a 30-minute commute.

Industry Minister Greg Hunt recently revealed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Cabinet were considering HSR.

With the report to be tabled in Parliament next week, Mr Alexander, chairman of the House Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities, said expressions of interest could be called late next year and the project completed without taxpayer funding.

"There is a perfect storm of opportunity," he said. "We have some of the highest-priced real estate in the world and separating our expensive cities is very low-cost real estate. The uplift of land value in these corridors will actually fund the infrastructure."

A senior executive from Japanese rail giant Hitachi told the committee the value-capture potential for HSR in Australia was the best in the world.

"If you're looking at one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in the world, it would lie between Sydney and Brisbane," Mr Alexander said.

A southern consortium, Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, (CLARA) is well advanced with plans to link Melbourne and Sydney by HSR and build eight new regional cities in Victoria and NSW.

Mr Alexander said the level of interest from Japan, China and Korea could result in a "super-consortium" with companies collaborating to build it as fast as possible.

Construction would start north and south and meet in the middle, with Brisbane developing as a hub for future links.

CLARA boss Nick Cleary said his company would happily collaborate to get it happening sooner.

"We'd welcome the opportunity to work with other consortiums to make that happen," he said.

[ozbob]

The Australian --> High speed rail consortium to seek green light from Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull will be asked to consider giving the green light to developers who want to forge ahead with a project for high-speed rail on Australia's east coast.

Consolidated Land and Rail Australia, an Australian-based consortium that has already sec­ured almost 20,000ha for new dev­elopment sites along the rail corridor, will present an unsolicited bid to the Prime Minister within the first half of this year.

CLARA wants the first stage of the rail development to run from Melbourne to Shepparton, with a new regional city site near the line to underpin the financial viability of the project. Its 30-year plan would be followed by links between Sydney and Goulburn and Goulburn and Canberra before being finally linked to the Shepparton-Melbourne line by the 2040s.

Using Japanese Maglev technology, rail travel time between Sydney and Melbourne would be just under two hours.

Nick Cleary, chairman of CLARA, said the company was preparing a "detailed bid" for ­government and said the one ­ingredient required for it to progress plans for an environmental ­impact statement was "political will". "We have had great discussions with government at all ­levels — they all have showed ­initial interest in the project but have all requested a more detailed proposal," Mr Cleary said.

"We are very excited to now be at a point to deliver this required information within the first half of 2017. This is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Snowy Hydro Scheme, of this generation.

"This is the time to show we can still do nation-building projects. The engagement with the private sector will demonstrate the government's role as an ­enabler for large scale projects."

Mr Cleary said the CLARA plan did not just have a single focus but would "solve many problems and provide a tremendous boost to the nation in all ways". CLARA has signed up Hitachi Consulting Australia as lead consultants to prepare the bid for government.

"We are the only company that has the land under our legal control to be able to implement this nation-building project, and solve so many of the states' and national issues — including congestion, housing affordability, overcrowding, and how to house the additional 14 million people by 2050," Mr Cleary said. "And in solving these we are also able to deliver the long-awaited, often-sought, achievable high speed rail at no cost to ­government."

While Mr Turnbull has ­previously expressed support for the $200 billion proposal, Urban In­frastructure Minister Paul ­Fletcher is understood to be highly sceptical of the plan. However, after a recent visit to China and South Korea, Industry Minister Greg Hunt said that cabinet wanted to advance the project, saying "now is the time" for Australia to develop high speed rail on Aus­tralia's east coast.

Even if the federal government rebuffs its call for support, CLARA is expected to continue to negotiate with the Victorian and NSW governments and at council level.

John Alexander, chairman of a parliamentary committee examining better transport connectivity, has argued that there exists a "perfect storm" of opportunity for the project to be financially viable.

[#Metro]

While Mr Turnbull has ­previously expressed support for the $200 billion proposal, Urban In­frastructure Minister Paul ­Fletcher is understood to be highly sceptical of the plan. However, after a recent visit to China and South Korea, Industry Minister Greg Hunt said that cabinet wanted to advance the project, saying "now is the time" for Australia to develop high speed rail on Aus­tralia's east coast.

Hint: Australian Gov't spending (including transfers to states) is $450 BN.

I would just love to ask who the investors were. Private proposals are possible http://allaboardflorida.com/ (this is under construction now)

but Brightline is only 2 BN max, this is 100x that amount. Good luck!!


I am not against private organisations choosing "bad investments" as long as it is their money, let them do what they like with it.

[Stillwater]

Has anyone ever seen a maglev railway line that runs on anything other than a level track?  Snowy Mountains?  Great Dividing Range?

[#Metro]

Morocco HSR

[ozbob]

H5 passing pic.twitter.com/8cwaoz44Hb

— 🚄SHINKANSEN🚅 (@SHINKAN34721410) February 1, 2017

[ozbob]

Melbourne Age --> High-speed rail and a Hyperloop: John Alexander's radical housing affordability plan

[Stillwater]

It won't be a go-card fare on the high speed train from Yass to Sydney.

[ozbob]

Meanwhile ..

[ozbob]

[ozbob]

China orders Bombardier high-speed trains https://t.co/b6UAkVURp7

— IRJ (@railjournal) March 1, 2017

[ozbob]

Maglev Newsletter >> http://maglevboard.net/en/newsletter?utm_content=buffer8b49f

[ozbob]