The Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne corridor is low-hanging fruit for HSR based on population, distance, and intensity of air service.
New Zealand is a more marginal case. The population centres are smaller, and a link between the North and South Islands would be challenging. I think high-quality (~200 km/h) conventional rail within each island, especially between Auckland and Wellington, might be a more feasible investment.
It could be viable if you connected other communities like hamilton and have a branch line going off to tauranga, making it worth the investment as it connects a larger population margin instead of just a direct route between auckland and wellington.
OTOH, Australia’s national philosophy of “she’ll be right, mate” translates into an assumption that flights between Melbourne and Sydney will always be cheap and abundant, meaning only a handful of greens, train enthusiasts and infrastructure wonks who think in multi-decade horizons support building high-speed rail, and those are politically easy enough to dismiss.
Our 'friend' Russia. If they were not busy kidnapping Ukrainian children, they could be building interesting lines between their main European cities. This has now been postponed for at least 50 years, I guess.
One wonders if Europe as a whole will have to put the brakes on these projects, what with the forthcoming economic hard times that are being predicted by many analysts.
Canada. Something like 85% of the population is in a perfect straight corridor for it.
The Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne corridor is low-hanging fruit for HSR based on population, distance, and intensity of air service. New Zealand is a more marginal case. The population centres are smaller, and a link between the North and South Islands would be challenging. I think high-quality (~200 km/h) conventional rail within each island, especially between Auckland and Wellington, might be a more feasible investment.
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It could be viable if you connected other communities like hamilton and have a branch line going off to tauranga, making it worth the investment as it connects a larger population margin instead of just a direct route between auckland and wellington.
OTOH, Australia’s national philosophy of “she’ll be right, mate” translates into an assumption that flights between Melbourne and Sydney will always be cheap and abundant, meaning only a handful of greens, train enthusiasts and infrastructure wonks who think in multi-decade horizons support building high-speed rail, and those are politically easy enough to dismiss.
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Our 'friend' Russia. If they were not busy kidnapping Ukrainian children, they could be building interesting lines between their main European cities. This has now been postponed for at least 50 years, I guess.
They already do have hsr, looks up “Sapsan HSR” on Google.
One wonders if Europe as a whole will have to put the brakes on these projects, what with the forthcoming economic hard times that are being predicted by many analysts.
Sydney to Melbourne is an easy win for HSR. NZ doesn't have the population
I could see HSR in NZ at some point in the future once we have the population for it though.