Introduction Ten years ago, the Australian population was projected to double from 24m to 48m in the next 4-5 decades. Today, it is projected to almost double in 3-4 decades by 2050. It may grow further. Australia is a ‘United Nations in one country’. Some 60% of the population increase, 15m, will be immigrants. Australian […]
Dwellings Over Railways
The VFT2 High Speed Rail/Fast Freight Rail (HSR/FFR) concept envisages building 400,000 dwellings above inner-city HSR and suburban rail in trenches for 30km into and out of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane CBDs. Sale of the dwellings would pay for the total construction cost of the HSR/FFR project between the three cities. The dwellings would be […]
Resource Availability for High Speed Rail Construction
The 2013 HSR Study Report recommended construction of HSR between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in stages over 35 years. Government accepts this long construction time. The problem is that in 35 years the population of Australia is projected to almost double and these cities’ populations to grow to almost 8m. The 35 years reflects the […]
Relative Cost of Government Infrastructure
Introduction The Australian population is projected to double in the next 4-5 decades. Major cities are projected to double in size, Melbourne and Sydney to 8m. This will require considerably more government infrastructure spending to maintain and increase liveability or quality of life and prosperity as the population grows. It is worthwhile developing preliminary views […]
Brisbane High Speed Rail
Recently, High Speed Rail (HSR) has been mooted to connect the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. This was not considered in the then Government’s 2013 HSR Study. Its route to Brisbane was inland via Ipswich, with a spur line from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. It did not connect with any airports. This […]
SkyRail Reconsidered
Introduction The apparent aim of the SkyRail Metro railway viaduct project is to increase public transport capacity for 200,000-400,000 new settlers in the fringe Melbourne suburbs of Cranbourne, Berwick and Packenham, and to remove level crossings, mainly between Caulfield and Dandenong. Why was the SkyRail viaduct adopted? Largely, it seems to be as it is […]