There is something exciting about train travel. I don't mean being door sliced in to the 7:45am with your face wedged into the back of someone's head hanging on for dear life wishing that the arm pit you keep inhaling didn't have quite such personality, I mean travel by any means other than aeroplane. So I was thrilled to read that China is planning to build a fast train to Europe. In today's Age newspaper "the journey from London to Beijing by rail could take just two days under a Chinese plan to build an international network for trains that can travel almost as fast as aircraft." And knowing the Chinese I suspect they will have it finished by Friday and there will be an iphone app with timetables by Sunday. You wouldn't have had time to go a second round on the yum cha trolley and you would be coming into St Pancras Station.
Why can't we have fast trains in Australia? Not long ago I read a proposed fast train service to cater for regional areas of Melbourne that would go almost 80kms an hour. I had a Ford Cortina in 1982 that could have got there faster than that. "The chief executive of the Australasian Railway Association, Bryan Nye, said Australia already had the market for Asian-style high-speed rail, especially in the Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane corridor. He said China recently tested a train at 380 km/h and had made a 1000-kilometre journey in two hours 50 minutes.
''If we could get a Sydney-Melbourne trip to three hours, or just under, it would be worthwhile and competitive,'' he said. It would be a fucking miracle given that we can't even get to work by train. Pass the wontons before they get cold.
I love the way you think and you write, Ms Lilo. Every single sentence is deliciously witty, bitey and brilliant!
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