I find it interesting how often articles come out about how good projects like Brightline West are before they're built. There's still plenty of time for more delays, budget overruns and further compromises. The original Brightline in Florida was meant to be the first high speed rail in the US, but after enough delays and increasing budgets they compromised on its speed. The Brightline model is better than nothing, but I'd hardly call better than nothing a model for us to emulate.

Some problems are legitimate, but honestly even if the Australian government cancelled the project and restarted following many of these recommendations, it would be even further away from completion, as we would have to wait years again for new plans to be drafted, and it still won't be built immediately. In my mind, it is better to commit to a slightly flawed plan than to constantly restart because we think of a better way, as we have been doing for years, decades.

The reason we're looking at Sydney to Newcastle is that people complained Sydney to Canberra was too expensive/difficult when that was last proposed, and that Sydney to Newcastle is easier and shorter. Grass is always greener on the other side.