The biggest supporter of high-speed rail (HSR) running between Newcastle and Sydney lives in the prime minister's lodge in Canberra.
One of his predecessors, Paul Keating, was a collector of French empire clocks. Mr Albanese collects HSR feasibility studies, dating back to his time as minister for infrastructure in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments over a decade ago. Soon he will have another study. But will we ever see a HSR vehicle in full flight?
A lack of concern from Hunter lobby groups and politicians for the appalling condition of Newcastle-Sydney rail services has meant that promises of upgrades to the old 19th century line, which became known as faster rail, were never fulfilled.
Pathetically, the NSW Labor government last year indicated all faster rail upgrades were abandoned.
Instead we have the possibility of HSR from federal Labor. Recently Newcastle Herald journalist Michael Parris updated readers on the state of play. A business case is being prepared. It will be critical in deciding whether a HSR service between Newcastle and Sydney, at who knows what cost, will ever be undertaken.
Studies from around the world tell us a lot about what the business case will consider.
Critical to the investigation is the question of who will use the thing if it is built. A first potential group of travellers is the current users of the Newcastle-Sydney service. Everyone knows the size of this group is miniscule.
Government statistics (from iPART) show fares paid on the Newcastle-Sydney line contribute less than 10 per cent of the cost of operating the service. It is the most subsidised rail line in the wider metropolitan rail network.
The business case will need to look elsewhere for a passenger base.
Passengers might emerge from what is called mode shift. This is when a traveller decides to use the train rather than jump in the car and hit the M1.
A letter writer to the Newcastle Herald expresses scepticism that such a mode shift could occur. A HSR journey would start in a car in any event, he writes, with a journey to wherever the Newcastle HSR station is located. So there will be time wasted and money spent on driving and parking at the start of the high-speed journey.
At the Sydney end time will again be chewed away in transferring to the Sydney public transport network, which may or may not provide easy access to the final destination. The letter writer hangs a large question mark over the possibility of mode shift.
In the absence of a large pool of existing travellers, and doubt about mode shifting, the business case for a Newcastle-Sydney HSR service will rest on the capacity of HSR to drive regional development well into the future, with growing interaction between the state's two major cities, especially in the professional services sectors.
But this will take time.
For HSR to work, thicker economic connections are essential between Newcastle and Sydney, with business and non-business flows in each direction, sufficient to justify HSR services two or three times an hour, seven days a week.
Newcastle trains will need to start in a significant and accessible location, say within a thriving business, sporting, and entertainment precinct at Broadmeadow.
The trains will then need to arrive at a significant Sydney location, one with ready access to metropolitan-wide public transport. Central railway station is the only such location. Sydney Olympic Park and destinations around Parramatta won't satisfy most potential travellers.
My guess, then, is that a Newcastle-Sydney HSR will struggle for patronage in its early years.
Then there are many ifs and maybes about the generative powers of HSR over the longer term.
Can a very expensive, linear, point-to-point train service ever be popular with travellers from across a sprawling lower Hunter whose destinations are scattered across a sprawling Sydney metropolis?
Let's see what the business case throws up.
