There’s a new RMTransit (@RM_Transit) video up about high-speed rail from Melbourne to Sydney.
It’s definitely worth checking out. Reece makes the case that more overnight sleeper services and electrification are an important first step: https://youtu.be/IMUcV_nxsWY?si=8reQjPjsrwVTcecx
My two cents on the topic is that HSR from Melbourne to Sydney should implemented as a series of incremental upgrades, rather than a single megaproject.
Between the 1970s and 2010s, the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Sydney was incrementally upgraded to a freeway-standard continuous dual carriageway road: https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/operations/roads-and-waterways/environment-and-heritage/heritage/hume-highway-duplication/history
It wasn’t done as single megaproject. Instead, it was done in small segments. A bypass around a town. A section of road between two town upgraded to dual carriageway. Eventually, over 40 years, the whole road was upgraded.
We should be doing the same thing with the train line from Melbourne to Sydney.
Not as a multi-billion-dollar megaproject, but as a series of discrete projects to upgrade sections of track to electrified HSR standard: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/24/start-building-now-to-fulfil-sydney-melbourne-high-speed-rail-ambition-labor-urged
That means faster train journeys from Melbourne to Sydney today, with full HSR rolled out incrementally over the longer term.
@ajsadauskas @RM_Transit @fuck_cars
The Australian Parliment could do with a huge influx of people who have worked in deeply technical fields. People who have 20 years experience building bridges, designing mining equipment, managing road building, running a Hospital Emergency Department, coding a billing system that works, etc…
Our current crop of perception managers (aka bullshit artists) don’t even know where to start when it comes to actually getting the stuff that needs doing, done!
@ajsadauskas @RM_Transit @fuck_cars Plus of course, my personal hobby horse: it needs to go through Canberra. Dammit! It’s the nation’s capital. Would be ideal alternative to air travel.
@treleanor @ajsadauskas @RM_Transit @fuck_cars I did a little work on a VFT consulting project in early 90s. I love the Utopia episode: https://youtu.be/8av3knflbQo?si=t_C_yOZbRX8iB6sy.
Very rarely do I have a positive view on posts in this com, but this is a rare exception.
No mindless, pointless, circle jerk hating, but rather a positive and legitimate wish and view toward an alternative.
People can hate on cars so they want, but since people and places end up making cars nesecary.
Earlier this year I needed to go Melbourne to Albury, usually a trip done in a car, but this time I had use of a car at the other end so I took the train. Was a fantastic trip. Access to a small food bar, toilets, the occasional stop at more significant towns.
Trains kick ass.
I’d love to see a better in town solution for transport, buses and whatever both in Albury and my home town aren’t really up to scratch yet.
@ajsadauskas @RM_Transit @fuck_cars totally agree. there is no excuse for work not to start immediately on upgrading the tracks between Campbelltown and Mittagong. That will have significant benefits for freight and passenger services to both Canberra and Melbourne
@ajsadauskas @RM_Transit @fuck_cars yeah there is no doubt about that. Gladys came so close to getting it…
Hey @RM_Transit not sure if you’re aware but nsw trainlink who run the syd-Melb xpt have placed an order to replace the xpts and it doesn’t include sleeper carriages. I think that would’ve been worth including in your vid because it really kicks the can on expanding sleeper service another 30 years down the road. It’s not insurmountable, but it’s difficult to see expanding sleeper service as a viable way fwd when we have brand new carriages that don’t have that function.
I think a bit of advocacy and awareness around that issue would be helpful!
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@RM_Transit @jedsetter @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Great video but sadly there’s no political will to do any of it. This is particularly worrisome given the planned population growth along those corridors around Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
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@RM_Transit @paulwallbank @jedsetter @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I agree it can, but it’s fickle, unpredictable and unreliable. True growth comes from culture change. The downside is culture change takes time (a wise person I once worked with taught me that any worthwhile culture change will take 7 years). However, it does happen, and it has happened in my lifetime - even in community attitudes to public transport.
@RM_Transit @paulwallbank @jedsetter @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Yes but all the relevant infrastructure is owned by the ARTC, which is a freight railway focused organization still drowning in the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail project that was designed, yes really, on Google Maps (to get it approved before it could be realized as a boondoggle).
Also owned by the federal government who don’t do passenger rail funding (essentially) and not the individual states that provide public transport.
@RM_Transit @jedsetter @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars For sure, but the only way I see political will for decent regional and high speed railway appearing in Australia is if the major political parties get their butts kicked in the next few elections. Even then, any politician that pushes it (who I’d vote for BTW), would be mocked by the main stream media who are totally car focused.
As much as I’d love to see it happen, I just can’t see the Australian establishment supporting it.
@paulwallbank @RM_Transit @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars yeah in terms of dealing with the actual grinding reality the best shot is improving run times and upping trainlink frequencies. vline style. focus on building patronage on the north coast and Canberra runs in particular, city to city traffic will come after.
@jedsetter @RM_Transit @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars the first steps would surely be to get modern train speeds and frequencies along existing corridors. Routes like Newcastle- Sydney are currently a joke in terms of speed (v-line is no better).
@paulwallbank @RM_Transit @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars they’re much better in the sense that they’ve making sustained progress on both of those goals.
@RM_Transit @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars meh sadly not so crazy. just business as usual for an agency that is focused on reducing costs rather than improving service/increasing revenue.
I’ve been on that many sold out trains this summer and yet the new order is just replacing rolling stock at roughly the same quantities.
