Re: Steam builds for Alice to Darwin rail link

["< Tell >" <telljb@netozemail.com.au>]

The previous federal labor government rejected the AS
to DAR line on a number of occasions because it would
never pay for itself, they were right.  Even if it
became a land bridge, there would need to be a huge
number of trains per day.  Just watch after the line is
built, it will be flogged back to the tax payers for a
profit to the consortium.

The iron ore bit is just a fanciful piece of fishing in
murky waters.  The infrastructure costs of setting up
an isolated mine and NEW loader facilities in Darwin
would not only be prohibitive but sheer lunacy.  
The iron ore giants in the Pilbara who are at each
others throats in a highly competitive industry would
cut this to pieces on tonnage and price with the worlds
richest iron ore.!

And if any aus.rail expert mentions the old Darwin iron
ore loader and how it could be used, I will scream.
This thing is no longer accesable by rail, was only
good for narrow gauge trains and could not handle in 24
hours what a Pilbara loader would handle in one hour.

....Tell


>mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly) wrote:
> 
> No you misread my estimations which were based on 2500 tonne trains.
> The 1000 tonnes is simply to make the sums easier.
> Obviously if there are iron ore trains from Coober Pedy then the economics 
> change ,but I am not aware of any plans to open any large iron ore mines along 
> the line.
> The startup time for large mines vary from 3 to 5 years.
> Remember also that this isnt the first time we have been told a starting date 
> for this line .
> In December 1997 the Chief Minister of the NT and the PM announced that 
> construction of this line would start in May 1998,but it didnt.
> The traffic projections for the line in 1998 would not have been so greatly 
> differant to the projections today to make the line viable , even with the 
> addition of $100 M.
> Its also interesting that if one looks at the companies represented in the 
> successful consortium , they are all enginneering , construction companies.
> There isnt a single bank or financial institution mentioned.
> According to the May edition of T & S , the consortium were still looking for 
> equity partners.
> 
> MD
>