Marketing high speed rail

We need to create a vision of Australia's future with high speed rail in order to build public support for high speed rail.

This week we spoke to Martin Baggot who has been consulting globally on high speed rail for the World Bank. He spoke of how most country's have a greater strategic purpose for implementing high speed rail, even though they will initially start by connecting two cities together (typically in the sweet spot between 200 and 400 kilometres apart).

For instance, Japan had a strong economic incentive to develop the Shinkansen, not only as a technology innovation for fast travel, but in order free the existing line for more freight services. In France, the national rail industry recognised it needed to compete with air services to remain viable, and therefore recruited the government's support by advocating for French technological leadership. South Korea wanted to bolster its heavy industry manufacturing capabilities, and therefore acquired the IP to build its own high speed rail system.

Spain used high speed rail as a tool to modernise the country after the end of the Franco era. High speed rail not only enabled fast travel, but created greater social cohesion between its provinces and bolstered Spain's own domestic rail industry. China used high speed rail as its key lever in modernising the country. High speed rail created stronger links between the emerging "special economic zones" along the eastern seaboard with inland cities across the nation. This allowed China's mass migration from rural paddy fields into "new HSR cities" along with the creation of manufacturing facilities and new supply chains for the export goods to the western world.

The economic effects resulting from the opening of high speed rail lines are now well understood. While France and Japan have been actively spruiking high speed rail as a catalyst for economic growth for decades, China is now the world leader with its "belt and road" initiative. Turkey was an early adopter with plans to base its economic growth on the back of building a large network linking the east (ultimately China) into Europe across the country. Laos and Indonesia now has high speed rail sponsored by China, with Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam in the planning stages.

Which brings us to Australia. We don't have cities conveniently located less than 400 kilometres apart. So high speed rail has been sold as a means to compete with air travel in the Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane corridors, which is an uncertain outcome at best. And as I argued last week, without public support, high speed rail isn't going to happen.

Of course, we know that high speed rail will bring many benefits. Regionalisation simply won't happen without faster connectivity to regional areas. It will open more places for people to live, offering the relaxed Australian lifestyle we all desire, which will reduce the pressure on our capital cities. Housing and infrastructure costs will be lower, high quality services will be more accessible, and travel will simply be much easier.

To put it simply, we will be more prosperous. Our standard of living will be higher.

We just need our political representatives to understand these benefits. We need bipartisan support and a marketing campaign so that everyone understands the value of investing in high speed rail NOW.