The “future improvements” should involve gradually rebuilding the line into a high-speed line: straighten out the slowest steam-age curves, replace alignments with new, faster ones, and add electrification (cascading the XPTs as spares to the Melbourne and Brisbane lines, where they’re needed for sleeper services). If you can get it to 200km/h (much faster than the current trains but slower than the current definition of “high-speed rail”) that’s the journey in under 2 hours, competitive with the busy air route. If you can get it to actual HSR speeds, it’ll be a good basis for the eventual line to Melbourne.
And all this can happen while the nation’s generation-defining high-speed-rail project is slowly thrashing out a regional commuter line to Newcastle.
The “future improvements” should involve gradually rebuilding the line into a high-speed line: straighten out the slowest steam-age curves, replace alignments with new, faster ones, and add electrification (cascading the XPTs as spares to the Melbourne and Brisbane lines, where they’re needed for sleeper services). If you can get it to 200km/h (much faster than the current trains but slower than the current definition of “high-speed rail”) that’s the journey in under 2 hours, competitive with the busy air route. If you can get it to actual HSR speeds, it’ll be a good basis for the eventual line to Melbourne.
And all this can happen while the nation’s generation-defining high-speed-rail project is slowly thrashing out a regional commuter line to Newcastle.