Major cities like Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane have good transit modes incl heavy commuter rail, light rail, trams & metros. This is where 🇦🇺 cities can be 👌
BUT, intercity travel is another matter entirely. Here’s the @TransportforNSW Canberra to Sydney train... 🤔
Yes, it’s a 3-car DMU, like a 158 with an Intercity 70 internal layout sedately cruising down windy lines between places. Due to my schedule & poor quality infra it’s the only time I’ve been able to take a train between Melbourne, Canberra or Sydney & this was my 2nd visit to 🇦🇺
Yes, it’s a 3-car DMU, like a 158 with an Intercity 70 internal layout sedately cruising down windy lines between places. Due to my schedule & poor quality infra it’s the only time I’ve been able to take a train between Melbourne, Canberra or Sydney & this was my 2nd visit to
Yes, it’s a 3-car DMU, like a 158 with an Intercity 70 internal layout sedately cruising down windy lines between places. Due to my schedule & poor quality infra it’s the only time I’ve been able to take a train between Melbourne, Canberra or Sydney & this was my 2nd visit to
Yes, it’s a 3-car DMU, like a 158 with an Intercity 70 internal layout sedately cruising down windy lines between places. Due to my schedule & poor quality infra it’s the only time I’ve been able to take a train between Melbourne, Canberra or Sydney & this was my 2nd visit to
As you can see, it’s an old route opened in different bits between 1855 & 1913 that’s slow with an infrequent timetable. Because of the poor intercity offering & due to timings on my trips I still haven’t managed to catch an XPT 😢
As you can see, it’s an old route opened in different bits between 1855 & 1913 that’s slow with an infrequent timetable. Because of the poor intercity offering & due to timings on my trips I still haven’t managed to catch an XPT
As you can see, it’s an old route opened in different bits between 1855 & 1913 that’s slow with an infrequent timetable. Because of the poor intercity offering & due to timings on my trips I still haven’t managed to catch an XPT
As you can see, it’s an old route opened in different bits between 1855 & 1913 that’s slow with an infrequent timetable. Because of the poor intercity offering & due to timings on my trips I still haven’t managed to catch an XPT
I liked the old, almost British style #RailwayArchitecture, pleasant views & evocative telegraph lines. But this is not a serious intercity link. At the #Sydney end, this train has to slip between @TrainsInfo suburban trains on the busy #SydneyTrains network. So what’s the sitch?
I liked the old, almost British style #RailwayArchitecture, pleasant views & evocative telegraph lines. But this is not a serious intercity link. At the #Sydney end, this train has to slip between @TrainsInfo suburban trains on the busy #SydneyTrains network. So what’s the sitch?
I liked the old, almost British style #RailwayArchitecture, pleasant views & evocative telegraph lines. But this is not a serious intercity link. At the #Sydney end, this train has to slip between @TrainsInfo suburban trains on the busy #SydneyTrains network. So what’s the sitch?
I liked the old, almost British style #RailwayArchitecture, pleasant views & evocative telegraph lines. But this is not a serious intercity link. At the #Sydney end, this train has to slip between @TrainsInfo suburban trains on the busy #SydneyTrains network. So what’s the sitch?
I liked the old, almost British style #RailwayArchitecture, pleasant views & evocative telegraph lines. But this is not a serious intercity link. At the #Sydney end, this train has to slip between @TrainsInfo suburban trains on the busy #SydneyTrains network. So what’s the sitch?
Sydney to Melbourne is the world’s 2nd busiest flight route with 10m pax per year. There are over 160 direct flights between the 2 cities per day. The distance between Melbourne - Canberra is around 650km & the distance between Canberra - Sydney is around 300km.
Currently the 🇦🇺 🚂 intercity trains do:

Melbourne-Sydney (950km) 10h30
Melbourne-Canberra (650km) 8h+
Canberra-Sydney (300km) 4h+

Slow, infrequent and completely impractical... 🦘💨
Meanwhile in 🇬🇧 without HS2 comparable distance are:

London-Inverness (932km) 8h3
London-Glasgow (645km) 4h30
London-York (303km) 1h50

(Note how the Inverness run spends ½ its JT on ⅓ of its route length north of Edinburgh)
For a more 🇪🇺/🇨🇳 comparison:
Beijing-Shanghai (1318km) 4h18
Paris-Barcelona (1100km) 6h19
Paris-Avignon (675km) 2h36
Paris-Dijon (290km) 1h35
So HSR has eaten into various flight markets both in 🇪🇺 & 🇬🇧 Flight routes such as London to Manchester, Brussels & Paris have been dented or eliminated with similar results in 🇪🇸 and 🇨🇳
#HS2 should also hack into the 170+ daily LDN-🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 central belt flights here as well!
A proper HSL from Melbourne to Sydney via Canberra could reduce journey times from Melbourne-Sydney to under 4hrs, Melbourne-Canberra to less than 2.5hrs & reduce Sydney-Canberra to around 1 hour.
This would be revolutionary & save tons of carbon, esp with a de-carbonised⚡️grid!
I do hope, 1 day, that intercity high speed travel in between major eastern Australia cities can revolutionise travel & bring the rail network into the 21st century.
That would be quite something & match some of the great 🇦🇺 urban transit systems 🚅 🛤 ⚡️ 🌱 🦘
Here’s hoping!
What say you railway people? Why isn’t this a thing? Surely it’s a no-brainer? @GarethDennis @NoelDolphin @Modern_Railways @Captain_Deltic @RAIL @alexcburrows @PickGS @WilliamBarter1 @njak_100 @seatsixtyone
You can follow @SimonZev.
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