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

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Audrey Ngingali (kinneara@webone.com.au) wrote:
> 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."

I'd like to know where the 18,000 figure comes from. Speedrail itself says
afigure of something like 140 passengers per train, or 2600 per day.

> "Second, the wheel on track Speedrail technology belongs to the 19th
> century.

Alstom might have something to say about that.

 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."

Ha! A maglev would be isolated because it is totally incompatable with
everything else.

Cheers
David