🚄 Fix Sydney–Melbourne Rail: Support Laird’s Vision for Faster, Greener Transport
The Sydney–Melbourne rail line connects Australia's two biggest cities — yet it’s painfully slow, indirect, and underused. Travel time exceeds 11 hours. Meanwhile, cars choke highways and air travel emits vast amounts of carbon.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Transport researcher Paul Laird has proposed cost-effective, step-by-step upgrades to dramatically improve this corridor using existing alignments and smart engineering.

 
💡 Laird’s Plan Includes:
🛤️ New deviations near Goulburn, Albury, and Seymour to straighten slow curves.
🚄 Faster trains reaching 160–200 km/h — achievable without new track.
🌏 Greener outcomes — rail emits far less CO₂ than cars or planes.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Regional revival through improved access to towns like Wagga Wagga and Shepparton.
💰 Affordable investment — far cheaper than building a whole new high-speed line.
 
📢 What We’re Asking:
We call on:

The Federal Government
Infrastructure Australia
NSW and Victorian Transport Departments
…to fund and commit to Laird’s staged upgrade plan — beginning with alignment improvements and modern rolling stock on the Sydney–Melbourne line.

 
🚆 Why It Matters:
✈️ Air is no longer enough: Flights are expensive, environmentally damaging, and vulnerable to disruption.
🌆 Cities are overcrowded: Better rail can relieve pressure and rebalance growth.
🌿 We need clean transport: This is the most climate-friendly way to move people between our two biggest cities.
🏙️ We must act now: Every year of delay adds to emissions, lost productivity, and wasted opportunity.

 
🖊️ Sign and share to support smarter, faster, and fairer rail investment. Help make Laird’s vision a national priority.
 
Sydney-Melbourne railway could be affordably upgraded to slash travel times to six hours, expert says | Australia news | The Guardian