Re: Adelaide Hills tonnage limit reduced

["Graeme" <gvrail@thatsent.com.au>]

Yes I agree.

As much as we all concur that rail alignments across many parts of Australia
are like goat tracks compared to other parts of the world, the reality is
that there is a lot that can be done to significantly improve reliability of
freight services so that transit times are always consistent so that the
railroad companies can deliver something that is comparable to road in
regard to freight rates etc.

The huge growth in interstate rail freight into Perth has not just been
because larger trains can be operated, but equally and most importantly that
the service to the customers is consistent and reliable.  I think it has
been as much about the rail companies looking after their clients than
running bigger trains.

Even despite the far superior alignments compared to the Adelaide Hills and
other intercapital routes, hard lessons have been learnt here in WA, about
minimising temporary speed restrictions, upgrading safeworking systems, and
generally working smarter.

In the case of the Adelaide Hills, there are a number of relatively minor
improvements that could further improve transit times and the issue of
broken couplers, which was the reason for this thread in the first place
could be overcome with distributed motive power using locotrol.

Graeme Vellacott
PO Box 322
CANNINGTON 6987
AUSTRALIA
Email:   gvrail@thatsent.com.au
Ph/Fax: +61 8 9451 5630
Visit www.thatsent.com.au
Mark Bau <mbauco@earthlink.net> wrote in message
_nEX5.52486$nh5.4050981@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net">news:_nEX5.52486$nh5.4050981@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
>
>
> ----------
> In article <90ctnj$i78$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, ben_scaro@my-deja.com wrote:
>
>
> > Not sure that it's particularly economically viable to have your
> > capital climbing through the Adelaide Hills at 15km/h while trucks race
> > by at 100 km/h- regardless of how well it's coupled.
>
> Average speed is what's important, not the speed for a small part of the
> journey. Anyhow, really time sensitive stuff goes in the air, other
freight
> needs predictibility in arrival times. A company will swallow an hour or
two
> longer transit times if the rate is cheaper and the promised arrival time
is
> kept.
>
> Here in the US railroads make buckets of money on routes not dissimilar to
> the Adelaide Hills
>
> Mark