500km/h trains back on Aust agenda

CANBERRA - High-speed trains linking Australia's big eastern seaboard cities are again on the political horizon, a quarter of a century and a series of earlier attempts after the proposal was first floated.

Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a A$20 million ($24.5 million) feasibility study into a scheme that has potential to dramatically lower the oil bill and cut deeply into greenhouse emissions.

The proposal - which would see trains running at up to 500km/h - could eventually be extended to Adelaide and Perth.

The trains would also compete with passenger jets, especially on Sydney-to-Melbourne flights - one of the busiest airline routes in the world.

But while the proposal has been welcomed by long-time high-speed rail supporters, it is already running up against scepticism and the certainty of vast expense.

The cost of a high-speed Sydney-Melbourne service proposed by the Greens in April was estimated at about A$40 billion ($49.15 billion).

The new study was promised by the Government during the election campaign, and Albanese said high-speed rail was now back on the agenda.

"As well as helping to build a more productive, prosperous and sustainable Australia, high-speed rail has the potential to significantly cut travel times for commuters travelling between our capital cities like Sydney, and regional centres such as Newcastle and Gosford," he said.

"There is a great deal of public support for high-speed rail in Australia."

Advocates have been arguing for very fast trains for almost three decades, especially with rising energy costs and climate change.

Although there are problems, including the Great Dividing Range and rugged country along proposed routes, supporters say rail is ideal for travelling the huge distances between major centres.

Advocates have also claimed potential gains from decentralisation, allowing commuters to live in outlying centres and help ease population and infrastructure problems in Sydney and Melbourne.

Last year Canberra Airport said a high-speed rail link would allow it to become Sydney's second airport, with travelling times between the two cities reduced to less than an hour. A second airport has for years been an intractable problem for Sydney.

The federal science agency CSIRO first proposed a high-speed link using the French TGV train in 1984, followed the same year by a similar plan by a private consortium.

In 2000 former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard axed an advanced plan for a TGV service between Sydney and Canberra because it would require a A$1 billion ($1.23 billion) federal subsidy, and a later study was dropped for similar reasons.

Albanese said the new study would be in two phases, the first to be completed by July next year and the second by mid-2012.

Greens leader Bob Brown welcomed the move as the first step in the inevitable connection of Australia's great cities with high-speed rail.

"Along with the national broadband network, high-speed rail will be a pillar of nation-building for Australia in the 21st century."

But the property development and financial lobby group Urban Taskforce said the Government would need to support population growth in any region to be included in the network. Chief executive Aaron Gadiel said the network would need a minimum six million passenger movements a year to be viable.

Rocket rail

* A A$20 million study will be launched into a possible high-speed rail network.

* Trains could travel the 1700km from Brisbane to Melbourne at 500km/h.

* High-speed trains would compete with airlines, cut oil costs and reduce greenhouse emissions.

* But earlier proposals have foundered on costs.