Uniqueness of Southern Highlands The Southern Highlands of NSW distinguishes itself as an area, somewhat unique in its combination of rural and retirement lifestyles with picturesque villages, a cooler climate than Sydney, a mix of reasonable sized towns (Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Berrima, Robertson, etc.) and some industry. Without wishing to draw negative contrasts to other areas of the Stat...
Read More »Fast as a speeding Bullet – not quite, but almost as fast as a Jet. Another post has described how Japan has achieved major technological breakthroughs with very high speed rail, through the new form of Superconducting Magnetic Levitation trains (SC-Maglev). As recently as 21st April this year, this type of train set a new land speed record for rail vehicles of 603 km/h, in formal tests, wit...
Read More »A History of Government studies and decisions regarding fast rail, with relevance to Canberra The latest detailed work, the Phase Two study of 2013 into High Speed Rail, nominated a first stage of the Melbourne to Sydney project being Canberra to Sydney, with a Canberra spur line (see map from study Chapter 6, Figure 6.1). Construction was provisionally envisaged between 2028 and 2035. There is a ...
Read More »The Newcastle-Sydney Rail Corridor: History & Status Because it may become a controversial topic, let’s jump now to the case of the Newcastle-Sydney rail corridor. Let’s start with a quote out of Wikipedia Wikipedia: History of rail transport in Australia New South Wales: “…New South Wales’ railways were standard gauge lines built to connect the ports of Sydney and Newcastle to the...
Read More »Evolution of rail speeds Some history first Rail has come a long way as a mode of transport since its first recognised commerciality, generally accepted as when George Stephenson constructed his first steam locomotive for the Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825). Rail speed has certainly increased over the years, and rail’s predicted death may not eventuate. Believe it or not the first pub...
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