If you want to found a city, here's a suggestion for its location. It's a crazy pipe dream but here goes: build a city next door to Sydney, Australia, on the other side of the Great Dividing Range.
Background: Sydney is a well developed city with a population of 4.5 million. It is built on a coastal basin, bounded by the Pacific ocean on the east, a mountain range (Great Dividing Range) on the west, a river/green belt on the north and national parks on the south, with expansion happening in a south-west direction. Real estate prices are high compared most other cities. To the west of the Great Dividing Range is the beginning of the flat interior of Australia. The first significant town to the west of the Great Dividing Range is Lithgow.
Running east to west, the Great Dividing range is delineated by a steep climb at the suburb of Glenbrook, and a steep descent at Mount Victoria. There is a winding highway and railway connecting these two points, so the trip from Lithgow to Sydney is slow. As the crow flies, the distance between Glenbrook and Mount Victoria is about 45km.
The plan would be to build a tunnel under the Great Dividing Range, install a high speed train in it, and cut the travel time between Sydney and the west of the range to minutes. Tunnels longer than 45km exist today, so it should be doable from a technical standpoint. The project could be paid for by the increase in land value to the west of the range.
As an aside, there are ongoing proposals for a high speed train (HST) along the eastern seaboard of Australia, linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, all major cities. The seaboard is rugged and heavily populated, so some proposals have the HST to the west of the Dividing Range. A new city, to the west of the divide, could act as a junction between a north-south HST and a connection to Sydney, providing a ready made economy.
Yes, but even if you were to build a tunnel from Lithgow to Emu Plains (on the Western edge of existing Sydney), there's still another 40-50km (as the crow flies) before you reach central Sydney.
Sydney is getting a 2nd airport. Air travel is easier to build, easier to expand and requires no private property resumption, wildlife corridors, bridges or tunnels.
There is also zero population density between the two cities.
Background: Sydney is a well developed city with a population of 4.5 million. It is built on a coastal basin, bounded by the Pacific ocean on the east, a mountain range (Great Dividing Range) on the west, a river/green belt on the north and national parks on the south, with expansion happening in a south-west direction. Real estate prices are high compared most other cities. To the west of the Great Dividing Range is the beginning of the flat interior of Australia. The first significant town to the west of the Great Dividing Range is Lithgow.
Running east to west, the Great Dividing range is delineated by a steep climb at the suburb of Glenbrook, and a steep descent at Mount Victoria. There is a winding highway and railway connecting these two points, so the trip from Lithgow to Sydney is slow. As the crow flies, the distance between Glenbrook and Mount Victoria is about 45km.
The plan would be to build a tunnel under the Great Dividing Range, install a high speed train in it, and cut the travel time between Sydney and the west of the range to minutes. Tunnels longer than 45km exist today, so it should be doable from a technical standpoint. The project could be paid for by the increase in land value to the west of the range.
As an aside, there are ongoing proposals for a high speed train (HST) along the eastern seaboard of Australia, linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, all major cities. The seaboard is rugged and heavily populated, so some proposals have the HST to the west of the Dividing Range. A new city, to the west of the divide, could act as a junction between a north-south HST and a connection to Sydney, providing a ready made economy.