Re: Some interesting Rail Facts.

[mdaly@pcug.org.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <89o6id$479$1@news1.mpx.com.au> "Rod" <freight_man@hotmail.com> writes:
>From: "Rod" <freight_man@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Some interesting Rail Facts.
>Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 22:08:53 +1100

>> Don't worry M[a]urie
>> FA will inherit the lot with in a very short time given there spectacular
>> rise and rise so far.
>> Today Victoria
>> Tomorrow Australia
>> Graeme

>This is my guess, [no that's wrong!...I mean a wish list! ]
>My Boss has obviously heard of people like me! and keeps his Commercial
>Decisions Close to his chest, but......
>I have heard that the NEW BIG RAIL AMERICA is on a roll and is keen to keep
>the momentum up in the US and elsewhere.
>Next Railway for sale in Aus. will now certainly be WAGR. Freight Corp will
>bleed, but the State Goverment will stop them bidding, or at least pull them
>out before the Sale goes ahead. National Rail is busy sorting their own
>problems out, and will not bid for WAGR. I think that RA is now big enough
>to roll Wiscon Central, and anyone else that might try to get WAGR,
>including CRT and SCT, and a Consortium of Truckers including Linfox and
>Tolls.
Its probably worth mentioning that the WA Govt wont allow any Govt owned 
Railways to bid for Westrail, which wipes out freightcorp,NRC and QR.
The Vic Govt and NSW Govt are also reported to not want to allow any other 
Govts or Govt owned Railways to bid for NRC ,which is causing some heartache 
in QR.

Rods scenerio is not that far off the mark.
IF RA get Westrail,then they could fairly easily wipe out NRCs east west 
traffic simply by undercutting them (NRC have a mountain of 
debt thanks to the NR loco fleet) and the east - westroute  is NRCs only 
really profitable route.Which then begs the question ,is NRC really that 
saleable ?
It is , if the Feds wipe out the debts and pay out the loco leases 
prior to the sale but I wouldnt be holding my breath.


>With WAGR under its belt, National Rail should be next, and then go for
>ARTC, and will heads roll there, they are a moronic bunch of obsructionists,
>and any dickhead from Mont Park would do a better job than they at this
>moment!

ARTC is supposed to be sold in 2001.
Very hard to know what will happen here.
There is a general feeling within the DOT that track owners should also not be 
rail operators so its quite likely that there will be restrictions on who can 
buy ARTC.
Also what is the real value of ARTC worth?
Since its very unlikely that we will ever achieve the desired aim of a single 
national rail network under the control of one operator,ARTC simply becomes 
just another track access authority,who will lose Tarcoola to AP to the new 
owner of the AP to darwin line.
Its also unclear what the new Labour Govt in Victoria will do when ARTCs lease 
of the VIC SG Network comes up for renewal.


>I don't know what the Feds will think about this...but a little voice keeps
>telling me, they will be worried about the 'monopoly' that could form. After
>all the arguments are over,'the good old boys' will probably sit in their
>armchairs in the Melbourne Club and decide to split National Rail down the
>middle, and divide their assetts between Freight Australia [or whatever we
>call ourselves next month] and Freight Corp.      Hows them cookies
>people............
>ps dont bother I am turning the puter off for a month ;o)

My feeling is that the feds simply want to get right out of Rail altogether 
and will simply leave the issues of rail monopolies to Prof Fels to sort out .
Its certainly likely that NRC in its own right will dissapear and be disbursed 
into the various privatised rail companies.
Eventually Freightcorp will be sold , Carr is just as pro privatization as 
most other State Premiers and will keep trying especially when after the 
Olympics the State ends up with a huge debt.

At the end of the day there will be two interstate freight rail companies left 
in Australia, one will be Freightcorp (either privately owned or still as 
a Govt Corporation ), the other I dont know for sure , a consortium of FA 
+ ASR maybe.

MD