Re: Indian Pacific passengers work up head of steam

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

On Sun, 1 Apr 2001 21:51:44 +1000, "Dave Proctor"
<daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
>3ac6dd3e.27921757@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3ac6dd3e.27921757@can-news.tpg.com.au...
>>
>> Umm, I dont understand the point of your post.
>> Just why would the police be involved in the derailment in WA?
>> It was a freight train, no one was injured.
>> This isnt the UK.
>
>As an example of how priorities are changed when things are privitaised?
>Under the old regime, the priority was on getting things moving again, under
>the privatised regime, the emphasis is on reducing blame?
>
>Dave
>
>
Unfortunately its an inevitable consequence of privatization.
Any private company that is a track owner is going to do everything
they can to minimise their financial exposure when things go wrong
like derailments etc.
But it could be worse.
What would have happened had the derailment occurred on a Friday night
and the track owner refused to fix the track until the following
monday to avoid paying overtime to their track workers.
This is why there has to be some financial remedy to rail operators if
their trains are delayed for reasons not of their own making.

MD