Out of all the countries to take high-speed rail inspiration from, I would hold off until that US line is actually operating.
Australia should take example from countries having high-speed railways. Being Japan, China, or any Europaen countries. (gues, I’m in Europe ;) ) The US is a bad example. Sure you have large distance as in the US, but expertise is not there. There is only one highspeed line between Boston and New York city, if I’m correct).
High speed train need its own track, it’s too fast at 300+ kmh, it needs protections from and for wild life around it, an onboard signaling system. All you don’t need below 200kmh.
Contrary to the article, when a highspeed train uses normal tracks, it has to go slow (200kmh max), and use visual signals. It becomes a classic train. So there are expenses to be made building tracks for highspeed trains. It’s not cheap.
Privatizing rails, taking examples from the UK and Paris - Bordeaux in France is a baaaaaaaad move. I think the UK rebought its first rail company. Paris - Bordeaux highspeed track is private and the french national operator SNCF must run its trains, even empty, to use it per contract. And seat prices are quite high compared to other (public) lines in France.
However as I see here in Switzerland, privatizaton can happen if well done. Switzerland has about 100 private rail, boat and coaches companies across the country… for 8 millions people, and one ticket and one timetable for everything. This is very centralized around the main train operator (which is a private company, 80% owned by the confederation).
Has anyone ever suggested engaging Chinese companies to help develop Aussie high speed rail. Seems like an obvious option.
I understand there’d be some dog whistling around it but surely there’s no actual sovereign threat if we develop local maintenance capacity.
Just gonna leave this here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/manufacturer-deliberately-bricked-trains-repaired-by-competitors-hackers-find/
Of course, not a Chinese specific issue, but definitely highlights the need for complete maintenance access. The trains need to come with full source code and schematics, and it needs to be in the contracts, and enforced.
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Sure, privatize the railroads. That going well is the norm, not the exception. /s
Go the Silver Emu!
I think a high speed train between Alice Springs and Mount Isa is the most logical place to start.
I probably wouldn’t base anything off US high-speed rail based on the progress in California
