Fast Train Fever: Should Australia build a bullet train from Brisbane to Melbourne?

Published: Aug. 2, 2020, 11:30 p.m.

Should Australia dump the decades-old dream of building a bullet train from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney and Canberra?\n\nThe east-coast bullet train advocated by the federal ALP could be an expensive folly: Australia\u2019s small population and vast distances present major economic and environmental risks.\n\nHow realistic is the notion that upgrades to regional rail would ease population pressures on our major capitals and boost struggling regional cities and towns?\n\nWhat\u2019s the best way for governments to help commuters get to work in the booming outer suburbs of the capital cities?\n\nThe alternative of renovating rail lines to boost train speeds from capital cities to surrounding regions is less expensive and might be worth doing \u2013 but these renovations are unlikely to fulfil all the wishful thinking of their proponents.\n\nWatch Marion Terrill, Grattan's Transport and Cities Program Director, Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of the Committee for Sydney, and Kat Clay, Head of Digital Communications, in a lively discussion on all things trains. \n\nTo read the report in discussion visit: https://grattan.edu.au/report/fast-train-fever/