My dear editor asked me to write about High Speed Rail in Australia, so being a forthcoming contributor, this is what I am going to do today. Now, I do not claim to be an expert on High Speed Rail, but like most people in Australia, I have my views on it that I want to share here. That way, you get to see some pros and cons from different angles, which you may find interesting, especially if you live in a country that also contemplates the introduction of High Speed Rail, but also if you are just interested in high-performance railways.

Let’s start with the motivation for High Speed Rail, which, at least in Australia, is as diverse as it can get. One of the most nonsensical arguments I keep hearing is that Australia needs High Speed rail because it works so well in other countries. To me, this is a variety of “keeping up with the Joneses”. You know, your neighbor got a shiny new car, so you must have one too, even if the one you drive is still perfectly okay and you cannot really afford a new one.

This is quite a silly motivation for buying a new car, often enough on credit, where your ongoing interest payments make the car much more expensive than it looked on paper in the shop. For a nine-figure investment, such as the 150-200 billion dollars that is the current guesstimate for High Speed Rail in Australia, such a nonsensical motivation can drive the entire country towards bankruptcy. No wonder I am so allergic to people coming back from holidays in Japan or some European countries, marveling about High Speed Rail there (often after taking ONE trip on it) and concluding that “surely, Australia must have this too”.

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