Re: Latest news on Speedrail

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

On Sun, 1 Oct 2000 11:10:01 +1000, "Tezza"
<tezza2000@dingoblue.net.au> wrote:

>
>"Maurie Daly"
>, "Tezza"
>> >"Maurie Daly"
>> >> There are many problems in making trucks pay their way.
>> >> the most obvious one being just how would you determine how much each
>> >> truckie should pay.
>> >
>> >I think the easiest, cheapest, fairest way is to wipe their rego fees and add a charge to fuel. The more fuel they use the more
>tax
>> >they pay. The same should also be done for cars.
>> >
>> >
>> Good idea.
>> Why not then do this for trains as well,and wipe the track access
>> charges entirely.
>
>They'd never do it. They'd probably have to charge $2-3 a litre for diesel.
>
>
Its really a question of where the money goes .
Fuel excise goes into consolidated revenue which is then used by the
Feds for any form of funding they like.
Track Access charges mainly go into State Govt coffers where the
States use it for what ever purposes they think fit.
If the States actually used the money they collected for the purposes
of improving rail I dont think anyone would mind.

The bottom line is though that whilst rail has to pay track access
charges and road doesnt ,then rail isnt as efficient or effective as
road,and the pollies know this and are quite happy to do nothing about
it,and indeed should they .
After all,is there anything that needs fixing ?

MD