Re: [SA] Renmark

["Garry Hoddinett" <hoddos@netspace.net.au>]

"Tell" <just@hate.spammers.com> wrote in message
cao83t0jh9mv38m5c8j9edokijjgln9di2@4ax.com">news:cao83t0jh9mv38m5c8j9edokijjgln9di2@4ax.com...
> Unfortunately Garry, when the lines were there the
> "farmers" preferred road, yet they were very vocal when
> line closures took place, of course it did not matter
> they did not use them in SAR days as well as when ANR
> came along.
> SA politicians watched for years as the losses kept
> mounting and thats why they sold the SAR to the Feds.
>
> Take it from somebody who has been around for a long
> time.  The railways in SA like elsewhere were in real
> trouble after WW2 from road competition.
>
> Even WA Webb knew that BEFORE the war.!  As matter of
> fact some of those lines should NEVER have been built
> in the first place.
>
> Question to all crowies, do you seriously believe that
> the SAR would still be running dinky loss making trains
> on the broad gauge branch lines.?
>
> Easy to say now that the lines should still be there.
>
> ....Tell
>
I think all through rural Australia farmers & rural communities turned to
road - witness the big push for improved country roads.  Unless their was
some bulk commodity like wheat then the community lost its railway line.
And the 'cockies' all bleated when the lines closed even though they didn't
use them.

South Australia was to an extent unique in that its agricultural lands had a
high density of railway lines.  Look at the farming  lands north of Adelaide
there was railways to Port Pirie, Gladstone, Spalding,& Peterborough (plus a
few minor lines) all running parallel to each other and only 20 km's apart.
Further the distant from the ports isn't  great when compared to other areas
of Australia. When improved road transport came along such a high density
could not be supported.  If a farmer is going to load a truck for a 10km
journey to a railway it is not a big deal to go the extra 100km and take it
direct to the port.  Now only a stub of the Peterborough line (Burra) and
the Port Pirie line remain.  The same comparative high density of railways
also existed for the irrigated Murray lands - Railways to Barmera, Loxton,
Yinkannie, Waikere, and only Loxton remains.  Road transport is a lot
shorter and quicker to Adelaide for these towns when compared to the rather
contorted rail journey via Murray Bridge and over the Adelaide Hills.

However the shame about the closure of the line to Barmera for me is that
with the big growth in containerised exports then the potential existed for
transport from all the Co-operatives direct to the ports of Adelaide &
Melbourne.  Such export orientated container traffic wasn't probably
considered when the lines future was dicussed.