Carbon tax a spur for urban renewal

The Carbon tax comes just at the right time.

The Intercity and intra-city transport system of the nation are facing massive challenges.

We are facing a peak oil problem which signals the end of cheap transport.

Our cities are over centralized and we have for the last three generations failed to invest sensibly in public transport.

We have too readily relied on seemingly cheap energy to provide the transport connection between the cities and we have simultaneously failed to invest in the rail systems to connect them not only for the movement of people but also of freight. The result is that it becomes increasingly expensive to travel between the cities and the inefficiencies in the freight systems now threatens the efficiencies of our import and exporting industries.

Travel by air will become increasingly expensive.

Travel by road between our major cities and towns will likewise become increasingly expensive.

The nation needs to refurbish our national inter-city rail network. There is a strong case for building a fast train service connecting the major cities on the South east corner of the nation. A fast train not necessarily a high speed train- system connecting Brisbane-Gold Coast-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne would connect the major population centres in a way that could be stage-developed and allow for the ultimately introduction of high speed trains. Developing such a system would also have the benefit of improving the connectivity of other intermediate regional centres in such a corridor

One of the immediate benefits of such a system would be the immediate reduction in high energy consumption air travel.

Some sections of the present rail alignment would need to be re-routed and gradients adjusted to allow trains of reasonable speed to operate safely but all this could be done in a staged manner to gain substantial economies and reliability in service provision.

It would be necessary to simultaneously upgrade the freight train connections between the major ports in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The freight and passenger traffic between the major centres would be accommodated on separate tracks although for much of their length the two could be within existing rail line ‘reservations’.

For maximum efficiency and convenience the fast train services would need to connect with the central areas of the major cities. The fast train network might need to make connection at one or two points with the international air transport system but the important feature of city-centre-to-city-centre service needs to be maintained.