Re: FreightCorp sale is official.

[robson <robson@cia.com.au>]

It was also said that the preceeds of the sale ($1 billion) would be
put into general government revenue, not partly into rail maintenance
as Transport Minister Carl Scully had hoped.

A cynic would suggest that the sale is being pushed through to
compensate for an Olympic budget blow-out, rather than for sound
economic reasons.

A anti economic rationalist view could be this .... It would have been
better to absorb FreightCorp back into State Rail so that the profit
(quoted yesterday as a yearly dividend to the State Government of
$45m) could be used to cross-subsidise CityRail losses, as was the
case before the 4 way split. That was the split that some now say
seemed like a good idea at the time. With cross subsidy there would be
less need to dig into the public purse. Stupid idea, right!