THE impact of COVID-19 has been so pervasive that virtually no sector of society has remained untouched.
Transport is no exception, and in a report to be released today arguing for a greater government focus on rail, the Australasian Railways Association says its surveys show an increase in the number of people considering a move to regional areas as a consequence of the virus.
This, then, becomes another in the plethera of justifications put forward in recent years to promote rail - the poor cousin of modern transport in this country - as a competitor with road and air travel across a range of potential inter-city routes.
On one hand, it's a sign of the failure of the rail lobby's spending proposals that the focus has gone from very fast rail, down to fast rail, and now, finally, "faster rail", typically described as travelling speeds of 160kmh to 200kmh, and usually on the existing tracks, rather than stand-alone high-speed systems.
On the other hand, the lobby's persistence shows an inter-generational belief in a mode of transport that has far greater utilisation in many other countries, and which has been recently rewarded in Australia with the belated construction of the Inland Rail.
RAILROADED:
- 2010: Newcastle Sydney fast rail back on the agenda
- 2018: Hunter leaders wary of rail plan after years of false starts
- 2019: State Liberals pledge $80 million before election to upgrade Hawkesbury section
- Feds talk up $2 billion national high speed rail plan
- May 2020: NSW government says Newcastle Sydney fast rail options no 'thought bubble'
The new report, like others before it, uses various case studies from overseas to show how rail has improved things economically and socially in the regions being examined: with the implication that the same benefits would arise here, if only the money was spent.
To its credit, the report is blunt about the failings of rail in this country. It does not compete, time-wise, with the alternatives, something that Novocastrians can attest when it comes to the rail service to Sydney.
Although climate change does not appear to have been considered in this report, the rail industry may well find itself a beneficiary of the greenhouse gas emission pressures that are already confronting the airline industry.
In the same way that electricity generators have adapted at fairly rapid speed, the big airlines are similarly preparing themselves for an era of change.
The politics - and pricing - of carbon may well work in favour of rail, especially if trains were built that produced some of some of their own power through solar or wind: a wind that might even finally blow rail's way.
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