Re: Gunnedah shire pushes Melbourne-Darwin rail line

[Dion Williams <onamission@freemail.com.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote:

> 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.

Yes exactly. The only place the idea of 200km/h freight trains running
3000km through outback Queensland and New South Wales to Darwin could
gain any attention is in the minds of spruiking politicians who know the
power of a promise. After fixing Adelaide-Melbourne, rebuilding the
Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane routes in their worst spots and
after that possibly getting Alice Springs-Darwin up and running, then
other connecting routes could possibly be considered. Even these
relatively small projects are endlessly booted back and forth by
politicians; projects like Melbourne-Darwin are just pie in the sky.

Dion