We took the train from Paris to Biarritz today, a journey of almost 800km, completed in under 5 hours.
Like many things, the last 20% of the endeavour took half the time. For the first 90 minutes, we scooted along at 300kms, and completed more than half the journey. Then, we started making stops.
For as long as I have been alive, there has been talk about high speed rail from Melbourne to Sydney. The two cities house half the nation’s population, and between five and nine each weekday morning, Qantas is sending off jets every 10 minutes to keep up with demand. Doesn’t a fast train fix that, seeing you could get from CBD to CBD in ~3-4 hours?
No.
Trains are very fast when they get to travel unperturbed for long periods of time. They rarely get to do so. There are about 10 medium sized country towns between Melbourne and Sydney who would all, quite rightfully, want a station on this new high speed railway. Even if you only stop at the station for two minutes, the time taken to slow down, and then speed up, adds up to hours. Travelling at 300km, my guess is that it might take 10ks to slow down sufficiently that that you can pull into the station safely. Probably the same to get back up to full speed.
So while train is one of my favourite ways to get around, it will have to remain a relic of the Old World.