But it's still on the books after Deputy Premier John Barilaro 14 months ago announced the government would pump part of its share of the sale of the Snowy scheme into improving rail by upgrading existing regional lines but headlined a new corridor for a 'very fast train' between Sydney and Canberra.

Of more interest to us, he also said the present Sydney to Dubbo XPT time could be cut by 25 per cent with new trains and track realignment.

The XPT now takes six hours 20 minutes but this would be reduced by 1.61 hours to 4.84 hours, a time difficult to do in a fast car and pretty well pie in the sky.

That aside, back in the 1990s Dale Budd, chief executive of a company called Speedrail, had a joint venture agreement with French subsidiary Alstom that made Trains a Grande Vitesse, known as TGVs, for a Sydney-Canberra high-speed service.

He said the 300 km/h trains could be up and running by 1999 on mostly upgraded existing tracks and could reach Goulburn in 50 minutes with limited stops. Canberra would be another 25 minutes away but the project had its detractors and never got off the ground.

Orange Rail Action Group for years has tried to convince the government to realign parts of the line between Orange and Lithgow to speed up train travel but the plea has fallen on deaf ears.

Dale Budd was in Orange this week and talked with the rail group.

He believes the Orange-Lithgow line should be upgraded but says it could be difficult dealing with any land acquisitions.

Did the old decade really end on December 31, 2019, and the new one begin on January 1, 2020?

There's popular belief the new decade didn't start until just now on January 1, 2021, with the old one finishing at midnight last Thursday on December 31, 2020.

So which is right?

Did we celebrate the new decade a year too early? We probably did.

For a new decade we must begin with the year ending with 1 (2021) and finish with 10, or as far as chronology is concerned, a year ending in 0 (2030).

For example, January 1, 2001, was the beginning of the 21st century and the start of the new millennium just as the year 1 AD marked the beginning of the Christian era.

Many of us will remember the excited celebrations that kicked off at midnight on December 31, 1999, but was that a year too early? Yes it probably was.

So was 2020 really the beginning of the decade? Or has it, in fact, just begun now on January 1?

So what do you think?

It's worth noting that decade didn't always mean what it does today.

Before the 17th century a decade was a collection of any 10 things and by that logic a collection of 10 years could begin whenever you like.

So if you think the new decade begins now, that's up to you.

Fred: "Did you know it takes three sheep to make a pullover?"

Tom: "That's amazing. I didn't know sheep could knit."