Re: Gunnedah shire pushes Melbourne-Darwin rail line

[pcc@ocean.com.au (Brown Family)]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000 11:10:09 GMT, mdaly1@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)
wrote:


>David , in this country we have dozens of railway lines that are available for 
>traffic.
>Melb - Sydney is available for traffic, but carries so little that if this 
>line had to be built today by the private sector ,it would not be viable.
>The same goes for just about every other railway line in Australia with the 
>exception of the Pilbara Lines,and the coal lines in NSW and Qld.
>These lines are the only ones that carry enuf freight to generate sufficient 
>revenue in track access fees to cover the capital cost of the line plus the 
>interest on the capital.
>For Railway lines which are to carry general contestable freight,they will 
>need to be Govt funded or very generous concessions have to be made to any 
>private builder.
>
Maurie, if we were ever going to (re)build Melbourne - Sydney, then,
IMO, one thing is for certain; the line would be extremely viable. if
built on a new and faster alignment through Canberra, rather than the
old meandering steam-age one. If the VFT can pass muster on economic
viability, plus other cost benefits such as environmental and
ecological, then certainly a modern alignment should at least do just
as well.

Les Brown
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to loose.