CLARA- Smart Cities and High-Speed Rail, Melbourne to Sydney via Canberra

Slattery were engaged to provide feasibility and master planning cost advice for all aspects of the Consolidated Land and Rail Australia (CLARA) project. The CLARA plan is to build up to eight of the world’s most advanced, sustainable, SMART, greenfield cities and connect them with a world-class High-Speed Rail (HRS) system between Sydney and Melbourne via Canberra.

CLARA’s vision is to create the world’s most liveable cities. CLARA cities with be compact, innovative and minimise their environmental impact.

CLARA conjunctly proposes to build a High-Speed Rail (HSR) network between Sydney and Melbourne via Canberra, connecting the proposed inland cities. This will include the construction of stations in each of the eight new cities as well as High Speed Rail platforms being developed for Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.

Within the CLARA plan there are two viable corridor options which could be the first stage of the CLARA plan:

• Sydney to Canberra, which includes three CLARA cities; and/or
• Melbourne to Greater Shepparton, which includes two CLARA cities.

More recently, Slattery spent 18 months fulfilling the role of preparing the cost plan for the first stage of this multifaceted infrastructure plan. It included analysis of a high speed rail system (AUD$20bn) and construction of new smart cities in regional Australia (AUD$5.5bn). Each city is to have its own water, waste, energy, mobility, big data in addition to the more common infrastructure such as roads.