Fixing the site
It recently came to my attention that many of the older Hot Rails posts, including all of the original Sydney-Canberra concept alignment sections, were no longer loading properly, either showing just a header image and title but with otherwise blank content, or returning an error message. The bug seems to…
Peregrine: Australia’s first, forgotten fast rail plan
In September 1975, nearly a decade before the CSIRO’s famous white paper that eventually became the Very Fast Train Joint Venture, the South Australian Railways quietly released the findings of “Project Peregrine” – a proposal to upgrade the rail corridor between Adelaide and Tailem Bend to a modern, mixed-use fast-freight…
50 years of Overland ridership
A recent article by Cosmos Magazine contained an eye-catching statistic: in the twelve months to June 2023, The Overland carried over 23,500 passengers on its 11-hour run between Adelaide and Melbourne. This may not sound that impressive in and of itself, but it’s a big increase on the pre-pandemic low…
An independent review of the Adelaide Rail Freight Movements Study
The Oldest Named Trains of the World
Fast rail on the freeway: Another approach for the Canberra line
Hot Rails has previously looked at the Southern Highlands corridor, estimating the cost of a 200km/h corridor all the way from Goulburn into Central Station to be in the order of $3.2 billion. However, the most critical part of that railway is the section between Campbelltown and Mittagong, which bypasses…
The Monaro Railway: another scenario for Canberra-Eden rail
One of the scenarios considered in the Canberra-Eden Railway feasibility study was a “passengers only” option, where the railway was only completed as far as Bombala. According to the study, this scenario would have a total financial cost of $1,424 million over 50 years, returning $84.8 million of benefits over…
Errors in the Canberra-Eden Railway Feasibility Study
This article gives additional detail to the numerous errors discussed in my previous article, Canberra-Eden Rail needs another look. All net-present-value figures assume a discount rate of 7%, the rate used in the Feasibility Study’s central case. Throughout, the Transport for New South Wales feasibility study is referred to as…