Re: Rail Safety Act in ACT

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

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