This type of service would come at the cost of many billions of dollars.
No Government in our lifetime will ever make the sort of investment.......
Well it does depend on what happens with long term population over the next 33 years.
Previous forecasts by the ABS were suggesting a Melbourne population of 10mil by that time. In the Herald Sun yesterday, they were leaning towards 8mil.
Whatever the resulting number, it then becomes a question of where the people live and work.
For the last 30 years we've seen this 'centralisation' rhetoric. Now, we are getting loud cries and policy for 'decentralisation'.
So if we break that down, if the people live and work in these satellite hubs (either suburban or regional), there is less need for an express service to Melbourne proper.
However, if the people are decentralised, but the work is still centralised in a large part, that means the need for a higher speed service is greater.
I can't see a 200km service to/from Geelong. Not at this stage. But a service with a much greater speed, as well as more express trains that only come from select stations as well, well that seems more probable in my opinion.
When we break it down, for the last 100 years our state has operated in a 'less than ideal' way. We rarely get what we really (think we) need. Yet the world and economy and life, still turns.