Re: V/Line Pass Fires the Boss!

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

On Sat, 23 Dec 2000 22:55:13 +1100, Craig Haber
<albatross@harnessnet.com.au> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Maurie Daly wrote:
>
>> What percentage of WCRs trains are 3 cars ?
>
>Depends on the time of year.  This time of year - 0%.  Middle of May -
>sometimes as high as 50% some days.
>Of course, the number of cars is not necessarily an indication of how many
>people are on the service!  Very easy to put on big trains, and casual
>observers look and say "wow, 5 cars on that pass, they must be doing OK", but
>if there is in fact only 50 people on the train, it ain't making any money.
>And therin likes the downside of fixed set carriage working.  Plenty of FSH
>(4 cars) and VSH (5 cars) sets on the Geelong line would never top 100 pax
>(ie, less than 2 cars capacity) on board.  Costs money to haul those cars up
>and down, a lot more than employing shunters to take them on and off in
>Melbourne.......
>
>Regards,
>Craig.


I fully understand the above.
I was trying to get across the point that at some point its cheaper to
run busses than trains ,if the trains are frequently only running with
a small number of carriages

So what is the break over point when its cheaper to run a bus,and
whats the minimum number of passengers that a train needs to cary to
make it profitable ,with current fare levels.

MD