Engineering, Passenger Rail

Olympic bid could trigger high speed action

Olympic Flag (Public Domain)

Former Victorian sports minister Justin Madden says a combined Olympic Games bid between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne could be the catalyst for a high speed rail line along the eastern seaboard.

“A high speed rail link between those cities might be the thing that gets the bid over the line,” Madden told Melbourne’s 3AW radio on Thursday.

“But even if it didn’t, it would focus people’s attention on the sort of infrastructure we need in 10, 15, 20 years’ time.”

Madden, who was also Victoria’s minister for planning from 2006 to 2010, and is now a senior infrastructure consultant at Arup, suggested a solo bid by any one city would be too expensive to justify.

“The difficulty is when you have different parts of the country doing different things … you lose the potential to put together a competitive bid,” he said, adding that a bid for 2032 Olympics would make the most sense to fit both the Olympic, and the high speed rail timelines.

Madden’s comments to 3AW followed a column he wrote for The Age on Wednesday, where he justified a joint Olympic bid, saying Malaysia and Thailand are reported to be bidding for the 2024 Games under the same banner.

“A shared multi-city bid allows regions to share the costs and benefits more broadly,” Madden said in his op-ed piece.

“An eastern seaboard bid would be good publicity for the whole of Australia, particularly the Australian tourism industry, and good coverage for a forward-thinking Olympic movement.

“How would an eastern seaboard bid make for a better world? A better Australia?

“It could if it was based on ‘critical nation-building infrastructure’, not stadiums and games villages but with major 21st-century rail links between the eastern seaboard cities.”

He continued: “That city-to-city ultra-fast rail that seems beyond the realm of probability might become possible with critical timelines that come with an Olympic games in 2028 or 2032.

“At the very least the bid might be the catalyst this country needs to focus on potentials and turn them into actuals.”