Snow wants very fast train for airport.

A VFT going up the Majura Road corridor was in Snow’s initial plans for teh aiport, when he first bought it from the government. And if the gov’t does get in bed with private enterprise to build it, guess who’ll put their hands up to run the project? Aiport! There’s some plans out at the moment that have the VFT/some kind of train going right into the airport, presumably where teh hotel is going to be, then heading across Pialligo to the Canberra railway station. I don’t think they have been generally released yet, or they might be in the current Master Plan that is up for gov’t approval.

I think that its a great idea. How many years would a project like that take till the first passengers could ride? Because if petrol is $3/L by then, it might seem a much better idea.

“Investing in the future….”???

I don’t think this is necessarily about the Airport. While its clear that Mr Snow has done a lot of work at the airport, he’s also looking at the wider issues affecting Canberra – and he is able to help – for a cost.

Looking at this proposal with airport coloured glasses doesn’t help…

great idea AD, only problem is that your VFFF can’t carry many passengers

I am still waiting for the VFFF (the very fast flying fox)… makes a lot more sense econmically and environmentally.

Gee, I thought you’d all be anti it! 🙂

I too think it has to be Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane to be truly viable.

The only problem I can see could be how much they charge for fares between Canberra and Sydney, as you can fly to Sydney for just over $100 at the moment. The CountryLink train charges about $56 from Canberra to Sydney, so I can’t imagine a VFT being that cheap.

Were making upwards of 15 to 20 billion surplus a year. We can easily afford it. And anyway the tax payer wont have to fit the bill as such if they just give big business some tax breaks to build it like what was requested years ago when it was first proposed.

We need to be doing things like this. Australia hasn’t had any grand projects on infrastructure for years. All we seem to be doing is standing still we need to get some real nation building projects up and running and this is a good start.

Lets not forget that if there was an affordable VFT from Canberra to Sydney with about a two hour commute (or less) then that is a less commute than Penrith, Campbelltown and other Sydney Basin locations.

If we can provide the water we could increase the population by another 150k or so for the VFT. I am sure Mr Snow has plans for massive Apartment suburbs to do just that. A Goulburn stop would enable it to have a 100k population long term (again if water can be provided) so Canberra with a VFT as second Sydney airport would mean a possible massive population increase in the medium term with extra millions in the long term.

A VFT won’t be viable, due mostly to cost. These things work when you have lots of people who use the service, and I don’t think Canberra has anywhere near enough bodies being moved to justify the service. However – put in a fast rail link Sydney Melbourne, and have a stop at say Goulburn, where you transfer to coach, and you may get some takers. Personally, I doubt any of it will go ahead.

Barney why would you think it is viable? I say it isn’t because the population at the Canberra end is not sufficent. I reckon to make it as an attractive alternative to plane travel you would need at least an hourly frequency. Each train, if you use the French TGV as the basis has about 400 people. Now lets look at the airport, at the moment we basicaly have an hourly service with Qantas. At peak times, you might have 400 people travelling, but during the day they are now mostly Dash 8-400’s with about 75 seats which when I fly during the day are normally about 50-75% full. Virgin is now flying jungle jets a few times a day.

Now you could argue you would attract people who are driving, but not as many as you would think as many of those would be going to where they would need a car.

Now a fast rail line with 1 train an hour is a waste and makes it harder to recover the cost. In France they have trains every 3-5 minutes peak on the fast lines. They use the lines to get out of Paris then get onto what they call the classis lines to go to other cities. But Australia doesn’t have the population density to warrant a service from Say Sydney to Albury.

Now don’t get me wrong I would love to see one built, the benifits would be immense, but at what cost and how would you recover that cost? Also like I said it should go no where near the Airport, Snow is dreaming if he thinks Canberra could ever be used as 2nd airport. If one is to be viable it must go centre of the city to centre of the city.

Oh the last point will be an issue in Sydney. How would you get the line from Campbeltown to the City without using the existing lines which would slow it down too much?

Yep I back this 100% It some thing that should have been built 10 years ago. We need to get the French TGV people in and build one from Brisbane to Sydney Canberra and Melbourne with a possible extension to Adelaide. Lets have tax incentives to get the consortium moving and start the engineering design work this year. We don’t have to re invent the wheel lets just buy proven off the shelf designs from France and get on with it.

If it ever goes ahead, it must go to Melbourne as well. It’s daft for it to be basically impossible to get the train from a nation’s capital to its second largest city.

It should also a) NOT be in the private hands of the Snow group, as that will just lead to monopolistic practices; and b) should directly connect to any future ACT rail system.

Told yers. In order to bring in Jumbos from Singapore at 2am, he needs to be able to process the passengers and freight, and then move it out. Fast train is vital to this. This was in his initial plans when he first got the airport. Bring stuff in at all hours of the day and night, and then use the VFT/fast train to move it to Sydney. This will enable him to make Canbera the 2nd Sydney airport, especially during Sydney airport’s curfew hours.

And people, you ALL live under a flight path.

Note: Very fast train, not very fast *arse*.

Yebbut coach travel is complete *arse* compared to train travel, especially the very fast variety.

As long as Mr Snow doesn’t make a buck out of it !

Pricing will need to be very competitive to attract commuters. I think Murrays are still offering $15 one way

Snow’s plan is for the International flights to arrive in Canberra at 4AM, when Sydney airport is closed due to curfew, and then immediately get into the train and go straight to Sydney.

So Canberra doesn’t get a look in.

I actually don’t think it’s a very workable idea. If I had a choice between flying straight to an OS city and arriving during daylight, or flying in at night and moving to a train for the last part of the trip, there is no way I would choose teh train option.

Surely Canberra could gain from being Sydney’s 2nd Airport? Would encourage international visitors to spend a few days in the nation’s capital when they’re on the way to Sydney maybe (why not if you’re going to land here anyway)? Would maybe also encourage big business to open shop in the Territory too.

In any event, it’s exciting that we’re finally talking about the future again, rather than looking backwards like during the Howard years.

I would love to have the VFT come in. I certainly won’t pay to fly to Sydney. It would make a day trip much easier and faster.

At least people who live here would see some benefits from a VFT.

I myself have never been against the expansion.
And, JC, I’m positive it would be viable. And even more so, by the time it’s built.

Talk about nation building.

Imagine – housing affordability in Sydney and Canberra could be eased significantly if the rail corridor between the two cities made it feasible to live in Goulburn and work in Canberra (let’s put aside the fact that you’d have to live in Goulburn.)

Extend the route to Brisbane and Melbourne, and you have huge potential.

Mirror this with a dedicated freight network (in the planning process, I believe) and Australia is really being set up for the future.

I like the idea but there is no way it could be financialy fiable. A line between a major city and a small city like Canberra just doesn’t work. All high speed lines that I know of that go just between two cities the cities are 1m+ people. Indeed in France one of the two homes of fast trains, the lines are not designed to link two cities but more to get the trains out of Paris faster. A good 75% of the stations served in France by TGV’s are not on high speed lines, something we couldn’t do in Australia either.

As for where to put a Canberra station, it should be ANYWHERE EXCEPT Canberra Airport. If a line is built that will eventually go to Melbourne you would thing the line would come from Gunning way, so when bringing it into Canberra I reckon it should come down the side of Gungahlin (with maintenance depot at Mitchell), then go under Northborne Ave with a tunnel, then put the station between the Sydney and Melbourne buildings.

Personally I give it a big thumbs up…. but I really don’t get you guys.

A lot of you are against the airport expansion, yet for a VFT link to Sydney?

What do you think he wants the VFT for? More reason to be Sydney’s second airport.

Congratulations, I always knew you guys would see sense in the end 😉

*I’m having a good typo day*

Well, the Howard goons and cronies never had any foresight, never cared about Canberra. You will all no doubt remember that Howard wanted Sydney to be the capital of Australia as well. They actively attempted to destroy Canberra. We possibly could have had it earlier.

It would be great. For many reasons. But will their be money from the Federal Government?

Time will tell.

I think VFT would be gret to Sydney, and for it to continue up to Newcastle. And for it to be resonably priced so that I might actually consider using it.

I am all for this – a trip to Sydney for a Festival or whatever costs a fair bit on top of the ticket when you take into consideration the petrol, parking and accomodation etc. Extending it to Melbourne and Brisbane would make it even better.

Sounds like a GREAT idea to me, and continue it to Melbourne and Brisbane.

I hate having to drive everywhere. I spent a couple of years living in the UK and Europe and you can get a fast train anywhere, so much better than sitting in a smelly car and concentrating on driving for hours.

Being a huge fan of the Japanese shinkansen network, this gets a “hell yes” from me.