''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 told a rail conference in Sydney. ''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, preserving the corridor for a future high-speed rail line.''

A recent study commissioned by the former Labor government costed a Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne link at $114 billion and said it would take 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.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, a strong advocate of the high-speed rail link, plans to introduce a private member's bill to Parliament this week requiring the government to begin work immediately on securing the rail corridor.