CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Less than a month after more than 6 million Qantas customers had their personal data hacked by faceless cyber criminals, the nation is once again asking why high-speed rail has never really been taken seriously in this country.
Or better yet, a bullet train. But high speed rail is probably good enough.
Over the last two decades, countries like Spain, France and China have built nationwide high-speed rail networks, with half hourly trains that arrive on time, travelling well over 1000 kilometres. This has proven that this is not just a Japanese phenomena.
And a distance of 1000 kilometres makes for a 3 hour high speed rail journeys – which, if you’ve flown with Qantas lately, is about the same amount of time it takes to get to to an airport from the suburbs and check in your luggage before being delayed twice and then eventually landing in another airport and then having to spend $100 on cab fares and tolls to get to wherever the fuck you are trying to go.
It is undeniable that travelling 1000km on a high speed from Brisbane’s Central Station to Sydney’s Central Station would be faster than doing it by air.
The argument cannot be made that Australia doesn’t have a big enough population, with the Melbourne to Sydney flight path now recognised as one of the busiest in the world.
It also cannot be argued that Australia is too big, with the distance between Madrid and Paris even longer than Sydney to Brisbane.
So why hasn’t Australia considered this mode of long-distance transport yet? We definitely have the crown land available down the entire East Coast. Remember, the poorly maintained scrubland that turns into raging bushfires every 5 years?
The re-emergence of the high speed rail debate has only made it’s way to Federal Parliament after the National Carrier of Qantas worked tireless to destroy their once infallible brand in the years since the pandemic.
From illegally sacking their ground crews and replacing them with inexperienced labour hire, to blaming passengers for their own bags going missing. And not to mention the delayed and cancelled flights. And how difficult they make it to get a refund or flight credit.
Maybe it’s now at the point where Qantas don’t have the political capital they once had to lobby our government against building a high speed rail network. Could all of the favours banked up through providing our Federal MPs with complimentary upgrades and lounge access be finally running dry?
