High-speed rail in Australia

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High-speed rail in Australia has been under investigation since the early 1980s. Every federal government since this time has investigated the feasibility of constructing high-speed rail with speeds above 200 km/h, but to date nothing has ever gone beyond the detailed planning stage. Various corridors have been proposed for a potential high-speed line. The most commonly suggested route is between Australia's three largest cities, Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne, which, as of 2025, is the world's fifth-busiest air corridor. The federal government's latest proposal as of February 2026 is a link between Sydney and Newcastle to be completed first by 2039, with the extensions to Brisbane and Melbourne to come at a later date. Since the introduction of the New South Wales XPT, some Australian trains have been capable of high-speed operation. The Australian rail speed record of 210 km/h (130 mph) was set by Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train during a trial run in 1998; the internationally accepted...

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