THE Bullet Train for Canberra political party will contest the next federal election, with party secretary Michael Lemmey nominated as unofficial candidate.
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The party plans to rebrand itself as the Bullet Train for Australia Party and begin a national membership drive to push the issue federally.
The niche party has only one policy: to get high-speed rail from Canberra to Sydney and then eventually for the whole east coast of Australia.
Almost 9000 Canberrans voted for Bullet Train for Canberra at the recent ACT election and the party hopes to replicate that success nationally.
Party spokesman Tim Bohm said the Canberra Liberals, ACT Greens and ACT Labor all supported the issue during the election campaign.
''[That means] 92 per cent of the vote went to parties that said they want to get a bullet train. This means the unofficial referendum result is 'yes' to getting a bullet train,'' Mr Bohm said.
But he said the party was disappointed the issue was absent from the 100-point Greens-Labor parliamentary agreement unveiled on Friday.
''We want a genuine express service, not just political lip service,'' he said.
Mr Bohm said the party had 250 members, but needed 500 to form a federal party. He said membership was free. For more information, visit bullettrainforcanberra.com. MICHAEL INMAN
