A Bold High-Speed Rail Plan from Australia

A high-speed rail proposal in Australia has the lofty ambition of solving some of the country's largest housing and transportation challenges, "by building eight new cities inland from the coast and connecting them with Sydney, Melbourne and the national capital of Canberra with a new high-speed rail line."

The proposal is novel in its scale and ambition. The company behind the proposal, Consolidated Land and Rail Australia Pty. Ltd. (CLARA), "says that the new cities will be compact, walkable 'smart cities,' with power from renewable sources, open data networks, mixed-use activity districts and local transport systems that would enable residents to live within 10 minutes of all their daily needs. And the housing, of course, will be affordable." CLARA announced the proposal earlier this month.

The proposal drops some big, glossy numbers: namely trains traveling at a speed of 430 km/h (267 mph) and a pricetag of A$200 billion ($150.6 billion U.S.). So far, CLARA has already dropped A$10 million ($7.5 million U.S.) on advance planning work.