The federal government will start consultations with states to assess their support for high-speed rail and their willingness to start reserving land for the corridor.
Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss says it is easy to dismiss high-speed rail as an unaffordable fantasy, with a recent study costing a Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne link at $114 billion and taking more than three decades to build.
The study found travel along the east coast would double to more than 355 million trips a year. Sydney-Melbourne is among the top-three airline routes in the world, while Sydney-Brisbane and Brisbane-Melbourne are in the top 20.
Mr Truss said the government was considering what role high-speed rail could play as part of Australia's long-term transport plans.
"I plan, as the next stage, to consult with the states and the ACT to ascertain their support for the proposal and their willingness to begin the next step, reserving the corridor for a future high-speed rail line," he told the AusRAIL 2013 conference in Sydney.
Mr Truss said that was more than just drawing lines on maps and would be a multi-billion dollar commitment.
"You cannot designate a corridor through our cities, suburbs, towns and rural landscapes without being willing to purchase the affected lands and that will be expensive and without an immediate return," he said.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a strong advocate of the high-speed rail link, plans to introduce a private member's bill to parliament next week requiring the government to begin work immediately on securing the rail corridor.
He said the coalition government had scrapped an advisory group commissioned to advise on the project.
"If we don't start planning now for the possibility of high-speed rail, it will never happen," he told the AusRAIL conference.
The bill would include the establishment of a high-speed rail authority made up of federal, state and industry stakeholders.
Mr Truss said his priority rail freight project was the Melbourne to Darwin Inland Rail link, proposed during the former coalition government.
He said a high-level implementation group will be formed, chaired by former deputy prime minister John Anderson, in order to ensure construction starts as soon as possible.
"Inland Rail will position our transport network to do the heavy lifting required to meet Australia's growing freight transport task over the next 50 years," he said.
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