Albo’s very fast train tactic an old classic among PMs in Knight toon
Successive Australian prime ministers have seen their high speed train hopes derailed but as Albo’s dusts off the dream, cartoonist Mark Knight is left wondering if the PM can jump-start his plan
READING LEVEL: GREEN
You know a federal government is in a bit of trouble when it trots out plans for the “Very Fast Train”. It’s a great political diversion* due to voters becoming mesmerised* by a big infrastructure* project and the thought of sitting back in airconditioned comfort on a gleaming 300km ph silver bullet between our eastern seaboard capitals Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
It makes governments look like they are “future planning” and visionary*.
The plan for high speed rail (HSR) has been around for a while, though, with the CSIRO* first broaching the idea after the head of the Australian science organisation went to Japan and rode on the Japanese high speed Bullet Train.
His immediate thought was, “What the …?! Why don’t we have this Down Under?”
That Japanese train had been in service since 1964! Not to mention decades of Europe’s famed TGV in France and the Alta Velocita in Italy. The Italian Frecciarossa 1000 can cruise at 400km ph. North Africa also has its first high speed service, with the Al Boraq in Morocco. Meanwhile, back in Oz, the Howard Government looked at it in the 2000s, then Labor’s Julia Gillard, followed by Malcolm Turnbull, but after raising hopes that the largest island continent in the world could have high speed rail between its major cities, the plans were put back in the bottom drawer for the next government to dust off.
Now Prime Minister Albanese wants to be the leader that can make it happen. Maybe he wants to divert attention from matters of social cohesion* in Australia, who knows? Regardless, this week at the Herald Sun Future Victoria 2026 summit, an ideas conference in Melbourne, Albo put up $230 million to get the project “shovel ready” within two years.
He wants to start with high speed rail between Sydney and Newcastle (168km), and if that goes well, replicate it north to Brissy and south to Melbourne. Of course, $230 million won’t get you a standing room spot in the baggage carriage on high speed rail projects like this. The whole project is in the tens of billions of dollars. The federal budget is already heavily in debt, but Albo reckons he can be the guy to get the wheels turning.
So a cartoon was in order! I love to draw trains, especially these high velocity* rail rockets. I have also been fortunate to travel on the TGV in France and the Frecciarossa in Italy and they are truly amazing.
The cartoon would be based on the idea that we have had the HSR idea sitting in the train shed for decades, but despite promises, it has never turned a wheel. It just sits there. Now Albo has come along and decided it’s time.
I wanted to illustrate his genuine enthusiasm for the project but also how the financial reality may get in the way. So I started sketching a sleek-looking train with the now well known long nose like a jet aeroplane.
These engines are powered by highly advanced electric motors, but while I was sketching, I had the humorous thought of putting a car bonnet on it and Albo looking under the hood and trying to make it go in true Aussie style.
The sketch seemed to work, so I added an FX Holden from 1948, a great piece of Aussie engineering for its time, which the Prime Minister was using to try and jump start the Very Fast Train project by using a set of car jumper leads. Albanese was determined to be the PM to get the HSR going!
The number plate on the Holden says “Budget”, which represents the financial constraints* on such a large infrastructure project. But the cartoon illustrates the Australian sense of “having a go” even if the odds look slim. But let’s hope that train’s engine kicks over and the project finally makes a start out of the shed!
POLL
GLOSSARY
- diversion: something done to take someone’s attention away from something else, also a change of direction
- mesmerised: holding someone’s attention completely so that they cannot think of anything else
- infrastructure: the basic systems and services, such as roads, transport, buildings and power supplies, that a country needs in order to work effectively
- visionary: someone with strong, original ideas about how things might be different in the future
- CSIRO: Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- cohesion: sticking together, when everyone is in close agreement and working well together
- velocity: speed at which something is moving
- constraints: limits, something that controls what you can do by keeping you within particular restrictions
EXTRA READING
High-speed rail on the fast track to reality
All aboard RBA runaway rate train
New Metro goes back to the future
QUICK QUIZ
- Which former prime ministers also explored high speed rail for Australia before their successive governments dumped the idea?
- The famous Japanese bullet trains have been around since what year?
- Mark has travelled on two of Europe’s finest fast trains from which two countries?
- What was a great piece of Aussie engineering in its time and what year did it launch?
- What is the name of Morocco's first high speed train?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. High speed rail
Mark Knight mentions several existing high speed rail services that operate in other places around the world. Choose one of these and research it to better understand high speed rail. Things you could find out include: when the service began; how it was built and the cost; the route it takes and where the stops are; top travel speeds and overall journey time; how the service benefits the area/country it is in; possible problems with the service; etc.
Create a poster or report to present what you have found out.
Time: allow 45 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Geography, Mathematics, Science
2. Extension
Write a short journal entry from the point of view of a passenger on Australia’s first ever high speed rail journey.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English
VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine this Mark Knight cartoon is part of an animated series made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell the complete story and this cartoon is only Part One. Think about what the next instalments could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the rest of the story.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking