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Kinexity t1_isyjifw wrote

Reply to comment by DisasterousGiraffe in Australia can Slash Emissions 81% by 2030 using six Existing Technologies by DisasterousGiraffe

I did not mean that trains are a big contributor because they run on fossil fuels but rather that road and plane traffic needs to be switched to electric trains because while switching to trains will already yield significant emission reduction the emissions from trains will also need to be removed. One could argue that trains could run on hydrogen but that's inefficient and incurs many new problems.

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DisasterousGiraffe OP t1_isyysy0 wrote

Yes, I agree, it would be good to move traffic onto electric trains. There are also short-range electric aircraft which could reduce the aviation emissions.

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Kinexity t1_isz1jpk wrote

Primary remover of emissions from aviation in Australia should be high speed rail. Not all routes can be replaced by trains (I assume because of the size of australia there is a lot of those small plaines going to many remote locations) but the most emissions come from the busiest routes. Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne-Adelaide high speed rail corridor should be a priority for Australian government. They should reach out to some known operators to get it built quick because 2065 deadline of their current plan (without Adelaide) is a joke. Either Renfe, SNCF or JR (better not CRRC to avoid China dependence) would be probably more than willing to take that contract and do that in half of that time or less.

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poukai t1_iszcy59 wrote

Especially Melbourne-Sydney is insanely busy with almost 9.2 million each, it's almost the same as LAX-SFO, JFK-LAX and LGA-ORD combined (10.6 million). Melbourne-Brisbane (3.5 mill) and Sydney-Brisbane (4.8 mill) is also pretty packed too. source (pre pandemic numbers)

A Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane high speed train would have been great. But I don't think the Australian government is going to do yet another feasibility study on that.

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laxativefx t1_it1cwo0 wrote

> A Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane high speed train would have been great. But I don’t think the Australian government is going to do yet another feasibility study on that.

No, but the NSW government has announced a thing… not sure if it’s a plan, a study, a plan to plan.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/projects/a-fast-rail-future-for-nsw

At the federal level, labor made commitments to fast rail including $500m to the Sydney to Newcastle route… of course this hasn’t been put through the budget process yet etc just an election pledge.

https://www.alp.org.au/policies/fast-rail-between-sydney-and-the-hunter

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poukai t1_it4yvz8 wrote

Thank you for that link, I was completely unaware of that and it was pretty interesting to read. $500m isn't going to amount to much, but atleast they can get some of the planing going.

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