A private company wants to build a high-speed rail link between Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney.  It's an ambitious vision that calls for the construction of new cities along the route.

Consolidated Land and Rail Australia Pty Ltd (CLARA) is partnering with international companies including GE, Aecom, RMIT and the CSIRO.  The board includes former Australian premiers Steve Bracks and Barry O'Farrell and former trade minister Andrew Robb, as well as several public and private sector figures from the US.  The $200 Billion plan would take 20 years to complete.  But land has already been secured in a number of regional hubs.

The eight new cities would ease the pressure of growing pains from the two terminus cities, Sydney and Melbourne.  CLARA claims these would be advanced, sustainable population centers next to existing towns and cities.

"Not only is CLARA seeking to build the world's largest high-speed rail infrastructure to date, the rail network is just part of a wider plan providing a quantum leap forward for the development of inland Australia," said CLARA chairman Nick Cleary. 

CLARA's website says that taxpayers would largely be off the hook when it comes to financing:  "Unlike other proposals for high speed rail in the past, CLARA's infrastructure can be paid for from the city development rather than from government coffers." 

Mr. Bracks says, "That will pay for the capital cost of the fast rail between Melbourne and Sydney.  And the fare box, with a large population of Melbourne and Sydney, will pay for the operation."