AUSTRALASIAN Railway Association has expressed deep concern that long debate threatens to destroy the chance of Australia securing an east coast High Speed Rail network that would connect Canberra to Sydney.

CEO Bryan Nye said he had read the Government report on the need for a second Sydney International Airport and  it was  “clear that airport capacity constraints need to be addressed to meet expected growth in international flights”.

“However, what is missing from the current debate is the impact and benefit of a high speed rail network connecting our East Coast cities,” he said.

About 1.1 million passengers travel by air annually between Sydney and Canberra, while the route between Sydney and Melbourne is the fifth busiest in the world with 7.9 million passengers travelling a year.

“World experience shows that a 350km/hr high speed rail link between Sydney and Melbourne with a travel time of 2hrs 50 min would see 60 percent of travellers change to rail,” said Nye.

“The Sydney to Canberra distance would see high speed rail become the dominant mode of transport on that leg.

“This shift to rail would free up the desperately needed air paths and runway slots into and out of Sydney airport.”

He said the High Speed Rail could provide alternative solutions for an early construction of a second Sydney airport.

“A 30 minute high speed rail trip could provide access to an alternate airport within a 200km radius of Sydney,” Mr Nye said.

“It could also provide overflow capacity through the existing Canberra and Newcastle Airports.”