Re: NSW support puts rail project on track for federal approval

["Audrey Ngingali" <kinneara@webone.com.au>]

Canberra Times 22/07/2000

Robert Macklin in article "Dream Deserving of Derailment"

"The trouble with the Speedrail proposal is twofold."

"First, at $4 billion to build, the Sydney-Canberra link is overwhelmingly
uneconomic. As has been pointed out previously, more than 18,000 people
would have to travel on it each day if it were to pay for itself. That
plainly is not going to happen..... ever."

"Second, the wheel on track Speedrail technology belongs to the 19th
century. It cannot meet the demands of a wider
Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide network> That will come only when the
magnetic levitation system - Maglev - is up and running. But if Canberra is
already fitted with a Speedrail link to Sydney, we will be effectively
isolated from the rest of the nation on an incompatible system."

"The only sensible response is to upgrade the Canberra-Sydney line so that
today's trains can make the journey in better time, then move to the new
magnetic world of transport as a nation a little further down the track (as
it were)."

He goes on to discuss vested interests for the Speedrail proposal, and ex
(national party) Minister Peter Nixon's consultancy with (labor party)
Victorian Govt, where arpparently the "hurdle" of 5 hours or less
Sydney-Melboure looks impossible with Speedrail technology. It seems
marketeers see 3 hours as desirable for this journey.

Chris Brownbill wrote in message <39793345.B1DB5412@enternet.com.au>...
>Oh well, that's the end of that project.
>
>> "David E. Lindstrom" wrote:
>>
>> The ABC reports that "the future of the Sydney to Canberra Speed Rail
Project
>> is now in the hands of the Federal Government."
>>
>> http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/nsw/metnsw-19jul2000-7.htm
>>
>> David Lindstrom