Chief Minister Andrew Barr has put forward upgrades to the notoriously slow Canberra to Sydney train link as a priority under the collaborative infrastructure agreement with the Commonwealth government.
Mr Barr said he wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in September to set out the ACT's priorities for the National Capital Investment Framework, which the pair announced at the ACT Labor conference in July.
The ACT called for immediate consideration of funding feasibility investigations for upgrades to the rail link under the investment framework, the Chief Minister revealed in a Legislative Assembly debate.
"I've raised the need to improve this rail link in my first letter to [NSW Premier Chris] Minns following his election. I've also personally discussed the matter with him and with his transport minister, Jo Haylen," Mr Barr said.
"When I met with them in Sydney in May of this year, I was pleased to hear that the NSW Labor government is taking investment in rail seriously and that they have committed $6 billion towards new rolling stock, new trains, that includes a new regional rail fleet which will certainly improve the experience of passengers traveling on the rail line between Sydney and Canberra."
Mr Barr said upgrades to the rail line would require all three governments - the Commonwealth, the NSW and the ACT - to work together.
"But I am encouraged by the early responses from both my NSW and federal counterparts," he said.
The Chief Minister said the ACT was not famous for receiving its fair share of infrastructure funding under federal Coalition governments.
"So it is no surprise that there wasn't a lot of progress or interest from the previous federal government in relation to this matter. But I am pleased that the new federal government has established the High Speed Rail Authority. I think this is a step in the right direction," he said.
The Greens' spokeswoman on transport, Jo Clay, secured tripartisan support for a motion calling on the territory government to write to NSW and the Commonwealth urging them to support improvements to the link.
Ms Clay said true high-speed rail was a long way off, but building something achievable now could deliver important improvements to the Canberra to Sydney rail service.
"We have the perfect opportunity now with the changes of government in NSW and federally. That's why I brought this motion now and put it on record that the ACT Greens are fully supportive of progressing this issue," Ms Clay said.
Opposition transport spokesman Mark Parton said the motion was "a rather benign piece of virtue signalling in a space which is completely administered by governments other than this one".
"We'll be supporting this one ... I've got a really big job to do: I'm here to prove that the Canberra Liberals are not opposed to everything on rails," Mr Parton said, in reference to the party's opposition to extending light rail to Woden.
A high-speed rail link would drive economic wealth in the broader Canberra region by drastically improving the area's connection to Sydney, and could be completed by 2045 if work began on the project now, a leading international rail expert said in March.
Professor Andrew McNaughton, who prepared a report for the NSW government on the future of rail connections in the state, said that unreleased modelling showed there was a genuine case for high-speed rail between Sydney and Canberra, which would "take off" as a city region.
