Faster, fast and high-speed rail These are different long-distance passenger rail products. Faster rail services are operated by existing or new rolling stock and run on upgraded existing tracks, at a speed between 160 and 200 km/hr. Fast rail services require new rolling stock operating on a mixture of new and upgraded track sections, at a speed between 200 and 250 km/hr. High-speed rail uses completely new, dedicated corridors that enable services to operate faster than 250 km/hr. |
" Government investment in faster rail, fast rail and high-speed rail services will play a key role in improving the connectivity and accelerating the settlement of regional areas. "
Governments must prioritise faster rail, fast rail and high-speed rail investments based on a shared vision for population change in Australia. The Australian Government should advance the prioritisation of cross-border projects connecting cities in different states and territories.
Government investment in faster rail, fast rail and high-speed rail services will play a key role in improving the connectivity and accelerating the settlement of regional areas.
Within 300 km of Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities, faster rail could deliver 90-minute journeys (see Figure 4.7). Investments should be targeted at connections to Smaller Cities and Regional Centres within this radius.
Delivering exceptionally large transport projects like this requires developing and using decision-making processes that account for investment benefits that accrue over a wide geographic area and have a 50-year-plus timeframe.27
The Australian Government should also lead a process to confirm the long-term interoperability requirements for fast rail, faster rail and high-speed rail lines that cross state and territory borders. This will mean Jurisdictions adopting common technical standards for tracks, operator training and communication and signalling systems.
Then governments can leverage the widest possible productivity and safety benefits from their investments.28
Preserving surface corridors for high-speed rail construction in the future is another way to increase these projects' value. This strategy will reduce the ultimate delivery costs and enable future stations to be integrated with new land uses.
For more information on corridor management, refer to the Sustainability and resilience chapter.
See the Place-based outcomes for communities chapter for more information on supporting the accessibility, growth and diversity of Smaller Cities and Regional Centres.