James,
I think a large number of people would support your sentiments whole heartedly.
Another point in support of your thesis is the imminent arrival of peak oil and the ongoing depletion of other finite resources.
There is so much work needed to be done to the Australian rail system generally that we need to start right now to avoid unaffordable air and road transport costs when fuel is $5 or more per Litre.
Meaningful changes can be made immediately at relatively low cost. For example, recently they have taken nearly an hour off the Armidale to Sydney journey simply by installing a 20C signalling system and upgrading some level crossings

I like trains. As a kid I did a Townsville to Sydney trip, & as a young man the Sydney to Perth trip. I loved them both.

The last time one of us wanted to travel by train was when my wife, with a young daughter had to go from the Whitsundays to Maryborough.

She did not want to drive, air travel is still basically to or from Brisbane, not inter city in Qld, & she certainly did not want to cart the daughter by bus. Rail was by far the best answer.

The only problem was it was booked solid for 6 weeks in advance, by pensioners taking a cheap subsidised holiday trip. She had to travel new years eve to get on the thing, the only day/night not booked out.

Cost is the other problem. It is more expensive than flying, & by the time you throw in cab fares at each end, I find it cheaper to drive, even solo. With 2 or more the car wins by a mile.

Add an extra day or 2 & a few side trips to some of the places you always wanted to have a look at, & with the car you have a short holiday package, rather than just transportation.

The idea of taking the car on the train would definitely appeal, provided the cost is not too high.

James, yes it was a thrill to ride the rails in the UK.
Last time, I went from London to Bletchley Park on what we would call
a local service but its speeds were very much higher than even our
xpt does for many parts of their trips.
Speeds must have been around 120Km/hr.

Sorry to hear that the government is not going to fund rails.
Well that ties in with their attitude to fuel security, both sides of
government has said there is no problem.
I have had my figures for my car costs per km including service etc and
it is cheaper by air to Melbourne where my son lives than by car and
the train is more expensive also for two people. For one person the
plane is cheaper, provided you book middle of the day.
I have noticed a big increase in air fares otherwise.

It is hard to believe that any government would deliberately ignore
what is happening fuel and put money into roads and not rail.
Likewise to allow all our refineries to be closed and rely on 100%
import of all of our petrol and diesel, aaarrrggghhh !

Both parties have been totally stupid or corrupt on this matter.

Imperial, you are indeed an optimist.
To be practical the planning should be on $10 a litre a very few years
after 2020. Some suggest earlier.
If I were PM I would start on duplication of the line between
Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne together with electrification.

Sitting on Hornsby station yesterday while one of these 2KM+ long
freight trains with three diesels up front thundered through with
what must been more than 100 containers on board (I lost count)made
me contemplate how many trucks were taken off Pennant Hills Rd.
All just moved by two men !

When we boarded our train I found that we passed that freight standing
on a siding 10km down the line to let passenger trains pass.
What a waste ! The third freight track now being built will be a
Godsend to the economy.
These freight trains run night and day, but mainly at night and if
duplication and electrification could be implemented our transport
and food security could be very much more secure.

We have an abundance of cheap fuel for trains, it's called coal.

Thank you, James, for this article and thanks to all the commentators for the polite and civilised replies.
I am required to be in Newcastle twice a year. As we drove down from the Sunshine Coast, my wife and I would constantly pass over a single track railway line. It took us a while to realise that this single track, constantly twisting railway was the main east coast railway between Sydney and Brisbane. It was still following the 1890s alignment, where it was cheaper to follow the contours around a ridge than to cut straight through it. Passing loops occurred every 20 kilometres or so.
Imagine driving between Brisbane and Sydney on a road which had not been re-aligned in the twentieth century with an overtaking lane every 20 km or so. We just wouldn’t accept it!
I hope our “infrastructure Prime Minister” sees this railway line and does something about it. He could start by realigning the permanent way so that higher speeds were possible. At the same time, the entire railway could be double-tracked so that the traffic in each direction was independent of the traffic in the other direction.
I take the point that Is Mise is making completely. We have enormous reserves of coal which could be used to power 21st century rail without having to revert to the steam locomotives we all think of when we think ‘steam power’. The French engineer Andre Chapelon [I hope I have his name right] showed how steam locomotives could be as efficient as, if not more so than, diesel or diesel-electric power.
Fluid bed technology could be used to improve the combustion of coal to close to 100% to ensure that more of the energy was used and less was blown up the chimney.
Rail travel could have a renaissance based on properly aligned and ballasted double track hailed by new generation steam locomotives.