Re: The inland rail route

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <86ueaq$or9$1@nnrp1.deja.com> thalytgv@my-deja.com writes:
>From: thalytgv@my-deja.com
>Subject: Re: The inland rail route
>Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 10:10:35 GMT

>In article <38918939@pink.one.net.au>,
>  "Nobody" <dweebken@NOSPAM.yahoo.com> wrote:
>> The Melbourne - Darwin line is part of a scheme to export goods from
>> Australia's south to Asia avoiding several days of travel from
>southern
>> ports. A superhighway of trains meets superfast superferries at
>Darwin to
>> run the goods up to Asia. This has the same benefits as the Panama
>Canal -
>> exporting of goods without running around a continent to do it.
>>
>> This should work because the rail link unlike road will have ability
>to
>> travel at 200km/h and move a far heavier tonnage.
>>If it ran through Brisbane
>> the only real benefit would be interstate freight and passenger
>services, as
>> QLD has many effective forms of transport to Asia (many ports and a
>huge
>> rail system).
>> Melbourne to Darwin will be different because it will be faster.
>Darwin will
>> grow and become the centre of trade for Australia with Asia. Havent
>you
>> noticed that rail heads usually attract goods?
>The only problem is if the Alice Spring-Darwin line finishes, there
>will be only one train run on that line per day(exclude Ghan), how many
>trains will run on this line?


>>Look at the effect of rail at
>> Newcastle, Lithgow, Wollongong Albury and many other such towns that
>simply
>> would not thrive or exist thanks to the rail industry. Darwin may be
>only
>> marginally bigger than Cook in WA, but it can grow.
>>
>> Brendan
>>
>I prefer to spend 13 billion$(this is how much it would cost to build
>this line!) on current rail network, improve track
>alignment,infrastructures, new rolling stocks, subsidy long distance
>passenger service and urban rail service, reduce running time and maybe
>reopen a few closed branches, accelerate some long delay rail projects
>like Sunshine Coast rail,Toowoomba main range deviation,  Coolangatta
>extension, Rowville-Glen Waverly line, Sydney's High Speed InterUrban
>service, Melbourne airport line, Adelaide light rail conversion etc .

>13 billion $ would easily solve almost all the problems currently rail
>operators facing and improve efficiency of the network.

>Cheers
>James


>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Before you buy.


In fact nothing like $13 billion needs to be spent on the current Network to 
bring it up to a reasonable standard.
The BTCE in Working paper 14.2 publish 1994 on the adequacy of Rail 
infrastructure estimated that only $4 billion was needed to improve the 
existing interstate network to the following standard.

Axle loads 	25 tonne @ 160 km/h 
Clearances 	4.8 M
All 60 kg/M on concrete.
CTC all the way from Brisbane to Perth.
Uniform communication systems.
Max gradients 1:50

I have a few reservations with their estimate in that double stack clearances 
thru sydney will require a separate freight line and the lowreing of the 
floors of quite a few tunnels.however its in the ballpark.
In 2000 dollar terms it will be a bit more but nothing like $13 billion which 
is total economic insanity.

Just as a simple exercise to the readers of this group , figure out how many 
trains per day would need to run over a $13 billion dollar rail line to darwin 
to make it profitable.
Use freight rates of 2.5 c/ntk and access charges of 0.3 c/GTK as a guide.
Its a BIG number.

cheers
MD