Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced he wants to extend a touted east-coast high-speed rail project to Melbourne. The PM raised the pie-in-the-sky concept while speaking in Melbourne today, after his government yesterday announced $230 million in preliminary funding for a high-speed rail project linking Sydney and Newcastle. The massive infrastructure development would connect Newcastle to the Sydney CBD in one hour, link the Central Coast to the capital in half an hour and add billions to the economy, according to a business case spruiked by the government.