The Australian Government’s Faster Rail Connecting Capital Cities and Orbital Regional Centres initiative was announced on Tuesday 9 May 2017 as part of the 2017–18 Budget. This initiative will explore improvements to the rail connections between cities and surrounding regional areas through $20 million in funding to support the development of business cases. Business cases will need to demonstrate faster rail travel times through new or upgraded rail infrastructure.

This initiative forms part of the Australian Government’s passenger rail agenda which includes:

• committing to rail investment over the next 10 years through the $10 billion National Rail Program announced in the 2017–18 Budget
• supporting planning for city-shaping passenger rail improvements in our major cities; • investing in partnership with state and territory governments in passenger rail; and
• reaching a fact based view of likely future rail priorities through Urban Rail Plans for our five major cities and the surrounding regions.