With Victorian political parties using rail proposals as a way to attract regional voters, it is timely to consider what these ambitious visions for inter-city passenger rail may mean for regional communities, including:

• What are the prospects for population growth, employment opportunities and regional economic development?
• What are the implications for strategic planning and regional governance?
• What are the challenges to obtaining integrated social, economic and environmental outcomes?

Join us for the sixth instalment of RMIT Centre for Urban Research’s Talking Transport series where we bring together leading experts from government, academia, industry and the community sector, to discuss our contemporary transport challenges.

BACKGROUND

In March, the Federal Government’s Faster Rail program allocated $20 million to develop business cases for three proposals including the CLARA Plan – a market-led proposal involving construction of two new ‘smart cities’ in regional Victoria.

The Victorian Government is investing heavily in regional rail through the $1.7 billion Regional Rail Revival program and in April, allocated $50 million to study a high-speed rail connection between Melbourne and Geelong.

This Talking Transport forum brings together people from regional development organisations, private sector high speed rail proponents and emerging researchers from RMIT and the University of Melbourne to discuss what high speed rail may mean for regional Victorians.

Chair:

Dr Andreanne Doyon – RMIT University

Panel:

Kirsten Kilpatrick – Committee for Geelong, Director NovoPlanning

Nick Cleary – Consolidated Land Use and Rail Australia (CLARA)

Marcus Spiller – SGS Economics and Planning

James Whitten – University of Melbourne

Todd Denham – RMIT University