Re: Gunnedah shire pushes Melbourne-Darwin rail line

[mdaly1@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <38e43485_1@news.chariot.net.au> "Taliesin Walker" <taliesin@chariot.net.au> writes:
>From: "Taliesin Walker" <taliesin@chariot.net.au>
>Subject: Re: Gunnedah shire pushes Melbourne-Darwin rail line 
>Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 14:34:43 +0930

>Surely it would make more sense to spend the $1 billion on upgrading the
>Melbourne - Adelaide lines. Trains going from Melbourne to Darwin could go
>via Adelaide. (Perhaps living in Adelaide makes my biased).

>Tali


Yes,it would make a hell of a lot more sense to simply fix the route thru the 
Adelaide Hills by bypassing them altogether.
AN has done a feasability study to do just this ,costing around $200 M.
Its total lunacy to be even talking about building another railway line from 
Melb to Darwin unless you can identify some additional 100 M tonnes plus of 
freight that currently isnt able to be hauled .
Since this is 10 times the total freight that NRC currently hauls,Id like to 
know exactly what it is that this new line is going to carry.

It would make a hell of a lot more sense to simply fix the existing rail 
network than to be spending multiple billions building new ones.

MD