Shame on Australia, my adopted country, for lacking the courage to back rail transport. They’ve been talking about a high-speed route from Melbourne to Sydney

Shame on Australia, my adopted country, for lacking the courage to back rail transport. They’ve been talking about a high-speed route from Melbourne to Sydney — one of the worlds’ busiest rail corridors — for decades. God knows how much has been spent on feasibility studies. And yet we’re decades away from progress, and that’s optimistic. Can rail be that hard? You acquire the land by compulsory acquisition — not popular, politically — and then you lay track. 99% of the land from the centre of both state capitals is farmland. Tracks exist to the outskirts of both cities. Actually, track exists between the cities! Agh fuck it makes me angry to even think about. I live in Canberra, the capital. I can get a delightfully quaint train to Sydney. It takes 4 hours. It’s 245km by road. The only plus is that it’s fairly cheap. Oh and the cost. How did we allow rail to cost BETWEEN SIXTEEN AND ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MILLION DOLLARS PER KILOMETRE? Excuse my French but: fuck me. [0] It’s pathetic. [0]: https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/other_001_a_profile_of_high-speed_railways.pdf https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/other_001_a_pro...