Re: Rail Safety Act in ACT

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

On Mon, 06 Nov 2000 01:30:00 GMT, dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David
Bromage) wrote:

>David Bromage (dbromage@fang.omni.com.au) wrote:
>> Bruce Greening (bgreeni@attglobal.net) wrote:
>> > With the Act finally winding up AN a few days ago, the land etc passed to the ACt
>> > Govt. RAC are negotiating to take over most of it from ACT.
>
>> I missed the tiny clause that the Australian National Railways Commission
>> Sale Act 1997 also repeals the Seat of Government Railway Act 1928.
>
>Which actually makes things more complicated.
>

>The ACT government claims to own the Canberra line, but I don't know if
>this was formally transfered along with the lines now owned by the SA and
>Tas governments.
>
>SRA was granted a 25 year lease on the line in 1985, and I doubt that the
>sale of AN could have been predicted then. As it was an operational lease,
>it would still be under the control of SRA rather than RAC. One of the
>conditions was that SRA to continue to operate passenger trains to
>Canberra for the duration of the lease.
>
>The lease also predates ACT self government so it would not be covered by
>assets and leases transferred in 1989. If the line is still owned by the
>Commonwealth, regardless of whether it's the ANR Commission or DoTRS, this
>shouldn't be a problem. If ownership was transferred, this could make the
>SRA lease void ab initio, removing Countrylink's legal obligation to
>continue the passenger service.
>
>Cheers
>David


The last thing on the planet we need is for the ACT Govt to take over
the line.
This would mean an ACT Rail Safety Act,and a ACT Dept to administer
the Act,an ACT rail accreditation authority to accredite Rail
operators to run on the track and an ACT Rail access regime to allow
third party access to the track.
Rail in this country is already mega over Govt regulated.

MD