ALBURY-Wodonga’s chance to cash in on a high speed rail link has risen with new estimates slashing the build cost.

A report released in Canberra yesterday has estimated the Brisbane to Melbourne line would cost $63 billion to build.

That is 45 per cent less than the $114 billion bill predicted in a previous federal government report.

Albury-Wodonga, Wagga and Shepparton are part of a proposed stage one of the high speed rail system between Sydney and Melbourne.

Australasian Railway Association chief executive Bryan Nye said the study, launched at a forum in Parliament House, highlighted the need to stop debating, commit to the project and put high speed rail to the market.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and high-profile Labor MP Anthony Albanese attended.

Mr Albanese was Labor’s transport minister before the Coalition took power late last year and now serves as the opposition’s infrastructure and transport spokesman.

Mr Nye said the new project cost was not the result of cutbacks.

“Prices haven’t come down, instead this new $63 billion price tag is a reflection of international construction costs,” he said.

The study — The Potential Impacts of High Speed Passenger Rail to Eastern Australia — found that high speed rail along Australia’s East Coast could be built for $35 million a kilometre.

The government report estimated this at $63 million a kilometre.

Mr Nye said a significant aspect of this study was how it looked into the impact of high speed rail on regional Australia — something the government’s study ignored.

“High speed rail dynamically changes the growth of regional Australia,” he said.

“We either let Melbourne grow to 8½ million or we put in high speed rail and Albury-Wodonga grows to two million.

“If you’re going to put new universities and a new hospital in place then isn’t it better to put them in regional Australia, where the land is available, rather than fit these into mega-cities?”

Mr Nye said the government had not deliberately ignored these regional impacts, “but it was spooked by the price”.

“What we’re saying to them is the price is not as much as that, why don’t you go and ask the private sector — particularly China, Japan, Korea, Spain and France,” he said.