I am skeptical that a high speed line between say Sydney & Melbourne
could be built for financial reasons. These high speed lines are very
expensive to construct and are almost line of sight.
Sydney to Wyong would be a nightmare due to the topography.

A much more productive project might be to straighten the line between
Sydney and Wagga. The present line was built with horses and scoops
and to rebuild with bulldozers migh make a very big difference in
speed. This would give speeds similar to London to Edinburgh. A big gain.

More important than high speed trains might be duplication and
electrification of all main lines.

While I wish your inland rail project every success, I am afraid your comments about Gladstone Harbour and the fish disease are wide of the mark. The still unidentified disease is not being found elsewhere despite other Queensland ports and river systems having much larger floods than Gladstone experienced. The difference here is the massive dredging program to remove 46million cubic metres of harbour silt containing acid sulphate soils and heavy metals, within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Much of this is being dumped in the ocean only a couple of kilometres from the Marine Park boundary.
The recent report by an independent scientific panel which conducted no tests but reviewed data provided by government authorities, raised more questions than it answered, including the lack of monitoring for metals and organic material.
Professor Ian Poiner, who chaired the panel, said: "The report doesn't point to dredging as being the reason for what's being observed, nor does it exclude it.''

This article is classic self-serving rent seeking.

“Economic rationalists still hold the outdated view that it’s better to keep a person on the dole than give them a job that may not generate a profit.” No, economists hold to the view that social welfare is diminished when we put people to work on projects that are not economic rather than on ones that are. If a railway is going to require massive subsidies to keep it running then – unless we can show some convincing evidence of a substantial offsetting social or environmental benefit – we should not build it.

If there is a deficit in major transport infrastructure in Australia, if is not in the passenger transport initiatives Everald applauds in the UK, but in rail and port infrastructure needed for freight movements to support exports, especially in resources. These need to be provided, but their costs should be met by the major resource projects proponents responsible for driving demand

Everard, no progress will be made without people like you. I regret having to disagree.

The logical place for the airport is around Marulan/Goulburn, integrated with a major residential and employment zone; with freight at Parkes as planned. The strongest link would be your inland rail-bridge, with Sydney connecting along its Main West line (local "stopping" traffic having gone onto a metro or tram).

Newcastle is almost impossible geographically, unfortunately. Putting the load between the eastern cities makes more sense.

I agree that there is a great deal of potential in the proposed inland rail line. But I do not agree that the problems with the Port of Gladstone can be dismissed. As far as I am aware, there is no evidence that similar problems exist all along the Great Barrier Reef. If there was a more general problem that would eventually go away, there would not be moves to remove World Heritage status from areas in and around the Port of Gladstone. Altering World Heritage boundaries is a clear admission that there is a major problem.

Everald, I’m an admirer of your drive and vision for the future of Australia and we need you to keep pushing for an improved transport, port & shipping system.
However I believe that you have misunderstood the situation at Gladstone harbour. Today a preliminary report by an independent researcher has been released commissioned by the Gladstone community. Click on the link below and to download the report click on the tab that says – FFVS Update 1 2901
http://www.gladstonefishingresearchfund.org.au/

Fred, a second airport for Sydney would be a wste of money.
By the time it is finished it will not be needed.
Airlines will be one of the first casualties of the transition economy.

Rhian, the days of subsidising railways has ended in most countries
and in the US rail freight is increasing quite strongly despite, or
because, of the economic conditions. Trailers on trucks is common
practise overseas with sleeping cars for truck drivers on the same train.

Unfortunately I think our loading gauge between Sydney and Parkes is
not high enough. It also restricts double stacking containers to
Parkes to Western Australia.

So far alternative energies are generally electrical in output.
Bio fuels are not very promising due to their net energy results and
the massive amount of land needed to scale them up.
It boils down to do you want to eat or drive ?

Oil is about to treble in price:

Current coal use, dependent on oil, will wind back to 19th century levels based on steam engines without oil

Forget renewable energy as every single one is fully dependent on oil from mine to manufacture to maintenance and refurbs.

Nuclear energy will be impossible: imagine mining billions of tons of rock for a few kilos of Uranium without oil, or tearing down used up reactors every 40 years or transporting and storing waste without oil.

All forms of GAS use are fully dependent on oil with compressing & transporting the stuff so oil intensive as to make it just a propagandising front-end to a very foolish OIL dependency.

So, never mind about ports and rail. If you don't solve the free-energy problem(using GEOTHERMAL), if you can't find a way to overcome your OIL addiction and all the lies that go with that, then like every junkie you will just TALK about your heroism & how great things will be whilst slowly dying in your own squalor.

And the best part for me, I don't have to prove what I say other than to defer to the laws of THERMODYNAMICS and wait while 2012 unfolds the ugliness of OIL dependency about each and every one of us