Re: Hope for Gippsland train service

["Nicholas Hurley" <c.hurley@net-tech.com.au>]

<wk@cgsc.vic.edu.au> wrote in message 8k3dq8$rqm$1@nnrp1.deja.com">news:8k3dq8$rqm$1@nnrp1.deja.com...
> http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000707/A56894-2000Jul6.html
> Also what would more educated punters say we would get for $11.5
> million? Would it be a service restricted to light services (eg
> railcars and T classes) or would it be equivalent to any other part of
> Victoria's railways? (eg N class and N set)

Geoff Smithwick from National Express said at a meeting held in Bairnsdale
last night that all they will be doing is extending the N class and N set
service from Sale to Bairnsdale and they will not use Sprinters because they
are not optimised for longer distance travel. The trains will run at a
maximum speed of 115km/h to keep competitive with driving a car. He also
said that they will need an operating subsidy of at least 1.5 million
dollars a year to run the service, if they want to run two trains a day in
each direction they would need a subsidy of 2.5 million dollars.

Nicholas Hurley,
Bairnsdale, VIC