Re: NSW Chamber of Commerce supports VHST

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

Dave Proctor (thadocta@spambait.dingoblue.net.au) won a Nobel Prize for literature by writing:
> David Bromage wrote in message ...

> >> >The entire VHST project would cost less than a second airport.
> >
> >> Even it went MCY-BNE-OOL-SYD-CBR-MEL?
> >
> >SYD-CBR-MEL only. VHST-N would be additional to this.

> Hence the reason I have been supporting an MCY-SYD-MEL VHST - to really
> relieve YSSY you would need to take out the north as well.

Eventually it will. Don't know about MCY, although there is the potential
for it becoming an international airport. A fast (160km/h) QR feeder
service might be more appropriate for the Sunshine Coast.

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are the big airports. Air traffic alone
should justify a VHST on this route.

There is also the potential for incidental growth along the route. The
original VFT was flawed in that it relied on such growth to be viable. The
current VHST does not take this into account in cost recovery and profit,
but would serve to recover the capital cost faster than planned.

One study by Charles Sturt University (I'm trying to find a copy) found
that the VHST through the Riverina could make the area attractive to
business if there was a fast and frequent service to Melbourne and Sydney.
Something like 75,000 jobs could be created in Wagga and Albury around
5-10 years after opening. These would be mainly service industry jobs, but
there would also be flow on effects to manufacturing and the like. The
unspecified manufacturing increase would probably be conditional on an
improvement in the existing rail freight service.

Cheers
David