Greetings to everyone
In this blog you will find links to recent Guardian HSR articles, a Riotact Canberra HSR article and a speech by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
The Guardian Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Reporter has published three articles on High-Speed Rail (HSR) covering Fastrack Australia’s HSR proposal and the latest developments.
The first article was published on Friday 24 February 2023 coinciding with the launch of the HSR paper at a meeting of Rail Futures Institute (RFI).
The second article followed on Saturday 25 February 2023 that focused on the need for the Sydney Canberra HSR to be a priority.
The third article discusses the NSW government’s withdrawal from the Sydney – Newcastle HSR proposal.
Following Fastrack’s launch and the three Guardian articles a further article from Riotact in Canberra was published in favour of the HSR between Canberra and Sydney.
All of these articles have given great momentum to publicising the Fastrack HSR proposal.
The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts addressed the National Press Club on 1 March 2023 and a transcript can be found here. The Minister didn’t mention high speed rail in her speech but did answer a question on it. The Minister said the HSRA will redo the business case for high speed rail. Her priority is to make a start on Sydney-Newcastle as it was the most viable section in the 2013 HSR Study.
Our objective is to get the HSRA to do business cases for each of the 3 stages to Canberra, in addition to the Newcastle section. Fastrack believes the regional economic benefits of going south, plus the time it will take to tunnel to the north, will make the southern leg more viable in the short term.
The Minister had earlier called for nominations for the board of the High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA). The call for board members was coincidentally on the same day the Fastrack report was released. Perhaps Fastrack has had some success in moving things along!
Garry, Ross and Syd