ProblemAustralia is massive. Population is tiny.

One key problem is transportation of both goods and people.

This problem is not going to change in the near to distant future. At the moment; planes have a

monopoly on people transportation, trucks and ships have a duopoly on goods transportation.

These methods are not renewable. They are not sustainable. Trucks destroy the roads with their

weight. Ships along Queensland have caused incredible damage to marine life and to the Great

Barrier Reef. Planes charge incredible prices for their service as they have a monopoly on going from one

city to another in a single day. Something has to change.

IdeaHigh speed and capacity rail will combat these transportation issues. A rail network that runs around the coast of Australia will access around 90% of the Australian population with sustainable infrastructure and long term benefits. Trains are sustainable in that they can run on renewable power. The tracks trains use aren’t vastly resource guzzling and last for long amounts of time.Trains could be the future of carrying both goods and people around Australia.

PositivesTo start with, Australia would simply have to invest money into the rail network. With high speed rail, trains have the capacity to store cars in an under-carriage and take passengers from Brisbane to Sydney in around 3 hours, or from Brisbane to Melbourne in 6 hours and the passenger can drive their car away at the other end. This system will mean that passengers and inter-city travel becomes affordable and possible. Inter-state travel can become easy. Rail networks have the ability to move almost infinite goods. This is due to the fact, the more goods needed, the more engines are used. This does have a limit but it removes the current amount of trucks on the roads and the damages this causes.

Long Term ImpactsA high speed rail would remove the need for ship transportation to the Coast of Australia except for Sydney. It would be possible to therefore help Queensland marine life by simply banning ships and making all companies and cargo use the rail network. This would also force mining companies to pay for the upkeep and bettering of the rail system to keep their mines running at full capacity. This will cause more inter-city communication. The most important fact is that it will reduce the amount of damage done by trucks to roads. Even a look at Toowoomba’s roads at the moment shows the problems trucks are causing. It will cause our system to become much more sustainable and will push research into sustainable energy.

ImplementationTrucks and cars won’t be replaced for their manoeuvrability across the Australian landscape. What will happen is a vastly reduced use of them to move between major cities and along the coast where the most damage is caused. A wheel and spoke style delivery system will mean that central goods will arrive in Sydney and be distributed out along the spokes to each other hub; Brisbane, Melbourne, etc. This system will be more efficient then currently and will mean that goods distribution can be easily monitored and financed.