Meanwhile, in India, dedicated freight lines are being built, thus separating passenger and freight trains in some areas.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/logistics/govt-may-open-part-of-dedicate-freight-corridor-in-fy19/article24682411.ece

Indian railways are big,

"Indian Railways (IR) is India's national railway system operated by the Ministry of Railways. It manages the fourth-largest railway network in the world by size, with 121,407 kilometres (75,439 mi) of total track over a 67,368-kilometre (41,861 mi) route.[3] Forty nine percent of the routes are electrified with 25 KV AC electric traction while thirty three percent of them are double or multi-tracked.[3][4]

IR runs more than 20,000 passenger trains daily, on both long-distance and suburban routes, from 7,349 stations across India.[3] The trains have a five-digit numbering system. Mail or express trains, the most common types, run at an average speed of 50.6 kilometres per hour (31.4 mph).[5] In the freight segment, IR runs more than 9,200 trains daily. The average speed of freight trains is around 24 kilometres per hour (15 mph).[6]

As of March 2017, IR's rolling stock consisted of 277,987 freight wagons, 70,937 passenger coaches and 11,452 locomotives.[3] IR owns locomotive and coach-production facilities at several locations in India. The world's eighth-largest employer, it had 1.308 million employees as of March 2017.[3]

In the year ending March 2018, IR carried 8.26 billion passengers and transported 1.16 billion tonnes of freight.[2] In the fiscal year 2017-18, IR is projected to have revenue of ₹1.874 trillion (US$26 billion), consisting of ₹1.175 trillion (US$16 billion) in freight revenue and ₹501.25 billion (US$7.0 billion) in passenger revenue, with an operating ratio of 96.0 percent"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways

Maybe we should send another study team to India.

Shadow Minister past governments, every one of them, never set out to profit from railways.
We for reasons I will never understand, sold out to big money
Privatising far too much
We are like it or not a big country and must subsidise those who do not live in the cities
In fact just as a decentralised move loss of money on providing this service will be good for the country.
Too not every poor person is a bludger, we are not a worthwhile community if we base policy on how much money you have

Big projects like these are really great to fund the payola between politicians, bureaucrats, big construction & big unions. They all do very well, while the taxpayer picks up the bill.

City rail systems basically carry well paid bureaucrats & industry staff into their comfortable high rise offices in the city. If nothing else, these should be full cost recovery. Meanwhile the check out chick & all her mates in the suburbs, the majority of the workforce, is paying through the nose for the car they need to get to work, to subsidise those city fat cats travel.

You'll never get me to approve of such a system.

The Very Fast Train proposal has been a perennial con pulled by governments in trouble for decades.

The Sydney to Melbourne proposal has been studied, costed and shelved many times but falls into "the vision thing" category when required and it keeps getting dusted off and talked about when elections get closer.

Whatever happened to the Federal Inland Rail proposal Barnaby Joyce was talking about?

Let's see how the Light Rail fiascos turn out on the Gold Coast plus the Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra constructions underway?

Rache I think this proposed fast train is part of Barnaby Joyce's inland plan'
It is a good plan, both party,s have supported it even promised it in time we will get it
Because decentralisation makes sense

//Let's see how the Light Rail fiascos turn out on the Gold Coast plus the Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra constructions underway?//

As a resident of the lower Hunter, I can confirm that the Newcastle light rail was f^%k-up of massive proportions, making the city far less accessible than it used to be. I don't bother going in any more; too much of a pain in the arse. A bit of a shame for all the businesses I used to frequent in town, although some of them have had the good sense to relocate out of Newcastle.