Passengers could catch a train between Sydney and Canberra on the existing tracks in under three hours if the ACT Chief Minister has his way.

The ACT is the latest jurisdiction to push for improving rail speeds between Sydney and Canberra after the Federal Government announced money for scoping studies in the recent budget.

The 2017 federal budget included more than $70 billion for road and rail projects including an $8.4 billion inland freight rail network from Melbourne to Brisbane.

Today, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr caught the existing train to Sydney in an attempt to convince the New South Wales Government to prepare a joint submission for Federal Government funding, to upgrade the trains and infrastructure, cutting the journey time by at least an hour.

There have been numerous proposals in recent years to build new tracks for high-speed rail. ( Supplied: Consolidated Land and Rail Australia )

The train was an hour late to depart from Canberra, something Mr Barr said proved his point that rail speeds and the experience for passengers needed to be improved.

He said more Canberrans would catch the train to Sydney if the journey was faster.

Rather than pushing for an elusive high-speed rail project, Mr Barr said he hoped the existing tracks could be used, with modest upgrades, to host faster passenger trains.

He said it was an affordable option to improve the service.

"This is a realistic project that can occur over the next few years," Mr Barr said.

"That's the point of difference that an upgrade on this line and new rolling stock would provide, as opposed to some of the more ambitious very fast train and hyper-loop projects that have been muted for decades.

"The technology exists. We could get this train service below three hours and if it got closer to two hours, then it would be very competitive for business travel as well."

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Mr Barr admitted that most passengers on the rail link would be from Canberra, but said NSW should still get on board to push for a scoping study.

"If three governments work together on this then I think we can get this service to three hours or possibly a little less," he said.

"That journey time would make it competitive as a mode of transport between Canberra and Sydney.

"There's a lot in it for New South Wales, particularly all of the towns in the Canberra region: Queanbeyan, Bungendore, Goulburn."

Australia's slow journey towards high-speed rail

The first high-speed rail proposal was spearheaded by Dr Paul Wild in 1984. ( Wikimedia Commons: A. John Nicolson )

There is nothing new in Mr Barr's push for a faster rail link between Canberra and Sydney.

Many studies have been done since the 1980s, all have foundered because of a lack of funds or because they were deemed to be uneconomic.

The proposals included: