Re: Latest news on Speedrail

["Barry Campbell" <campblbm@ozemail.com.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote in message <39c9f2a3.41397393@can-news.tpg.com.au>...
>
>I wonder also what effect the falling Australian dollar will have on
>this project and on the other major railway projects like AP to Darwin
>given that most of the finance required for both projects will be
>written in $US dollars .
>The $A was in the high 70s when the successful consortium for AP to
>Darwin was chosen .
>The only benefit , if any of the falling $A is that foreign bidders
>for Westrail,NRC and FC will get them cheaper.


The effect of the falling $A is different depending on the project. the
AP-Darwin line is almost entirely a civil engineering project and would be
built almost entirely from Australian sourced and produced materials, even
down to the raw materials. A low Aussie dollar would make the project
cheaper in US$ terms.

The Speedrail project is a combination of civil engineering for which the
above comments apply and European sourced high technology trains. The fall
in the A$ against the greenback has overshadowed the fact that the A$ has at
least kept parity with the Euro and so there would be no negative effect
from the currency changes.

Barry Campbell