Re: Speedrail derailed?

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 02:03:28 GMT, dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David
Bromage) wrote:

>David Bennetts (davibenn@ozemail.com.au) wrote:
>> See today's Sydney Morning Herald.  According to Dr Phillip Laird, immediate
>> Past Chairman of the Railway Technical Society, straightening of the worst
>> 20% of the 300km of line between Sydney and Canberra, employing conventional
>> or tilt trains would achieve significant time saving at a cost of 10% of
>> that of Speedrail.
>
>But it won't take any of the air market and little of the road market.
>
>Laird has a long history of taking the "either/or" approach to reducing
>journey times.
>
>Cheers
>David

True but who wants it to.
In whose interest is it for there to be less airline passengers or
less people driving their cars between Canberra and Sydney.
Its certainly not in the Federal Govts interest.
A transfer of commuting from air or car to rail will cost the feds
heaps of dough.

1/ The sale price of Mascot will be diminshed due to less take offs /
landings.
2/ Revenues collected by Federal authorites such as CASA and FACS will
be reduced ,and therefore lower dividend payments to the Federal
treasury.
3/ Less planes will fly, less aviation fuel will be used and therefore
less fuel excise will be collected.
(Trains pay no fuel excise)
In the case of motorists, the last thing the Feds want is people to
start using their cars less,as they are now so dependant on revenue
from fuel excise,that even a small reduction in motoring will cost
hundreds of millions in revenue.

In short , the Feds have no interest in rail solutions whatsoever,as
they cant make any money out of them.

Upgrading the existing Sydney - Canberra track can only happen if the
Track owner (RAC or whatever they are called this week) are prepared
to do it , and as such will need funding by the NSW State Govt.
No chance in hell of this happening.

The feds wont give any funding to NSW rail until there is significant
improvement in rail reform,of which currently there is none.

In short , get used to the status quo for a very long time.

MD