Absolutely agree
@beeb - as a relatively flat nation rail is a very viable mode of transport. Certainly it would provide similar travel times between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, assuming you wouldn't need to faff around at a railway station as you do getting in an out of an airport. If you spent an hour at each end of an 1.5 hour flight from Sydney to Melbourne (travel city to airport, wait at airport, disembark, collect luggage travel to city), that is about 3.5 hours of total travel time for a distance of ~715km, or an average speed of just over 200km/hr. Imagine if you could simply swipe your Opal card and step on a train at Central and step off at Southern Cross; a HSR service that averages 200km/hr doesn't seem so impossible with current tech when European and Japanese trains typically operate at 300km/hr.
We're still addicted to air travel for longer distances, but hydrogen looks promising as a viable zero-emissions alternative to kerosene. Guilt free air travel is a possibility - just not in the near term.
I actually commented on a friend's FB page a week ago that this virus is what the world needs right now - a big wake up call to globalism, capitalism, money before the planet etc. To think that one little microscopic thing can tear the whole lot down is pretty incredible, and highlights the frailty of our current civilisation. If COVID-19 is here to teach us how to live and work more sustainably, in a fairer and more equitable world, then bring it on!