this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Should Newcastle to Sydney bullet train really be first link built of Melbourne to Brisbane route? (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 month ago by Zagorath@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Establish national standards for high-speed rail, in a way that is classic-compatible, so that trains can run slowly on legacy lines

Queensland doesn't run standard gauge, so that's extra hard up here.

It's so frustrating to me that even relatively new projects like Cross-River Rail didn't build dual-gauge so they could be compatible with a future high speed project.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 1 points 1 month ago

Neither did Japan until the Shinkansen. (In fact, aren’t both Cape-gauge?)

Any interstate HSR link to Brisbane would be standard gauge, as the XPT is. An intrastate link going north towards Cairns/Townsville may be classic-compatible Cape gauge if done incrementally, though given that one would typically break one’s journey in Brisbane, this is not catastrophic. Unless suddenly funds become available to build a new Shinkansen-style network from scratch, in which case standard-gauge would be the way to go.