Re: fast trains

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@my-deja.com>]

> Is this right, according to the press only a couple days ago, no
contracts
> have yet been let??

NX hasn't decided who to buy them off yet, but their buying them was
part of the deal for privatisation.

> Could you imagine the cost of this? It would almost require a bridge
from
> Parwan to near Horse shoe Curve, and that would not be cheap.

I'm not sure of the exact terrain, the line just needs to be made more
like the bendigo one. The general principle for the bendigo one was
when you come to a hill, you go either over it or through it. For
Ballarat the principle was to go around it. The result is that the
Bendigo line is fairly straight while the Ballarat one is longer and
more bendy than it needs to be.

How much would such a bridge cost, anyway?

> >the new railcars already paid for
> Paid for?? Who paid for them??

the victorian taxpayer did, through the privatisation contracts.

>  Without an extra track, would be near impossible. Suburban trains,
> Interurban trains and the occasional Goods train all travel pretty
slowly!

With careful scheduling it should be possible to gain some time - for
example, don't schedule goods trains so that country trains get stuck
behind them!

I'm not suggesting that the trains would blast through the suburbs at
160 km/hr, only that some time could be saved.

In places there *is* an extra track, in some others, there should be. I
do not know, and nor do I want to know, any bureaucratic impediments
that might exist to using those tracks.

> Dual gauge track on high speed lines in Victoria is not an option, as
the BG
> trains will immediatly suffer a 65 kph speed restriction on safety
grounds

Which sets off my bulls*** detector, I'm afraid. I thought it was 80 -
and why? because brake blocks might fall between the tracks?

Perhaps people with more technical experience than me can explain this.
Is there dual gauge track used elsewhere in the world? Do they have
these speed restrictions?

Is there really any reasonable basis for the restriction?

Vaughan


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