When PM Anthony Albanese was flying home after six days in Beijing, the Great Wall and a panda zoo, he  told  a newspaper that “Australia could learn from China’s fast-rail network". The People’s Republic already has _more than_ 45,000 kilometres of high-speed rail connecting 500 cities. We have zilch.

The lesson the prime minister brought back in his Boeing is that the local figure will remain – maybe forever unless chest-beating trumps economics.

Remember the whatever-it-costs battle to be first on the moon? The US won in 1969. Now the race is on land between China, Japan and South Korea. Slower — but still over 250kph — are bullet trains flying through 29 nations, though not the Wide Brown, despite us having the need for speed and vast empty spaces between town halls.

To feel the thrill, many assume a trip to the PRC or Europe. Wrong. Just nip across to nearby Jakarta.

Indonesia is known for unhygienic street food, grand-scale corruption (A$18.4 billion in the latest alleged company fraud) and fewer shootings than Melbourne. There are more Hondas than headscarves, the world’s most helpful people and five more km of high-tech rail than the US,

Whoosh, a contrived onomatopoeic acronym from Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Hebat, (Timesaving, Optimal Operation, Outstanding System) has been commercial for two years.

As Indonesians started zipping above wet paddy in ergonomic seats, Oz officials were pulling up chairs at the High-Speed Rail Authority meeting room in Newcastle to talk about thinking of going fast somewhere, sometime, maybe.

The Guardian claimed that “the HSRA has spent its infancy developing yet another business case, starting with Sydney-Newcastle, to ultimately........

© Pearls and Irritations