According to research released today high-speed rail linking Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane would reduce carbon emissions and provide a profitable and popular service.
The research also shows that it could be completed by 2025-2030, much sooner than any proposals from the Australian government, and would cost about $30 billion less than the government estimates.
Climate change think tank Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) launched the new report on the potential for high-speed rail in Australia in Melbourne tonight.
The report found that a 1799km high-speed rail system could be built between Melbourne and Brisbane, via Canberra and Sydney, within 11 years at a cost of $84bn.
The project would generate $7bn of operating revenue in the year 2030, the report found, despite tickets being cheaper than air travel, which would mean the scheme’s initial outlay would be repaid by 2040.
According to BZE CEO Dr Stephen Bygrave “the research shows that high speed rail can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, in addition to the regional development and economic benefits previously identified.”
The report, a collaboration between BZE, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the University of Melbourne’s Energy Research Institute, has been two years in the making.
The report recommends an alignment broadly similar to the government’s recent study, connecting 12 major regional towns, and the cities of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
A network of 21 high-speed rail stations would connect regional centres and mean that 60 per cent of Australia’s population would live within 50km of a high-speed rail station.
“Regional travel in Australia is highly concentrated in the east coast corridor, generating some of the busiest flight paths in the world as well as significant traffic on our main interstate highways”, said lead researcher Gerard Drew.
“One of the reasons Sydney Airport is facing capacity constraints is because it is shares two of the world’s busiest flight pairs, Sydney-Melbourne is number five and Sydney-Brisbane is number thirteen.
The report states that high-speed rail would have a significant impact upon air travel, with trains capturing 65 per cent of the Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Brisbane market.
Air travel between Canberra and Sydney “would be all but eliminated”, the report predicts.
“For too long the discussion has been misled by concerns of low population density in Australia rendering HSR inappropriate for this country,” Mr Drew said.
“The fact is much of Australia’s population is highly concentrated in the capital cities on the east coast and there is a high degree of travel between them by world standards”, Mr Drew said.
“All this travel is increasingly dependent on imported fossil fuels adding to Australia’s carbon footprint, and unfortunately it is doubtful that emissions free air travel will ever eventuate.”
“High speed rail runs on electricity, which means, unlike air travel, it can run on 100 per cent renewable energy.
“This is the prime motivation behind BZE’s recommendation of high speed rail”, said Mr Drew.
“A high speed rail system on Australia’s east coast will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from regional travel in this busy corridor by almost 30 per cent.
On top of this high speed rail will continue to provide affordable, convenient and comfortable travel for Australians into the future without the uncertainty of fuel supply and price”, said Mr. Drew.
The report finds that:
- High speed rail ticketing revenue could not only cover operational costs but also repay construction costs
- 60 per cent of Australia’s population live within 50km of a proposed high speed rail station
- Comparable high speed rail projects around the world have been built in ten years or less
- Greenhouse emissions from transport would be reduced by 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over 40 years of operation.
The report’s launch follows the introduction of a private member’s bill in the federal parliament by former Labor transport minister Anthony Albanese to establish a development authority charged with the reservation of land and further preparations ahead of the detailed design and construction work of the high speed rail system.
