Re: AP to Darwin on hold "YET AGAIN"

["William Miller" <backtran@optusnet.com.au>]

Maurie Daly <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
3ac67c5d.3116165@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3ac67c5d.3116165@can-news.tpg.com.au...
<snipped>
Good idea, makes it all somewhat transparent. Of course the excise collected
by each mode would have to be spent on each mode's infrastructure.
Considering the road user charge appears to be for maintenance, not capital
(ie for makeing new bridges and new pavement strong enough for 40T trucks)
then in a fair world the ARTC capex projects would also need to be publicly
funded?
>
> It would seem to me that the simplest and the easiest way to level the
> playing field between road and rail is to simply charge each mode the
> same , and then if one mode is superior to the other then that mode
> will win.
>
> If Rail users were required to pay fuel excise , in exactly the same
> way as were road users , but were NOT required to pay track access
> charges or individual State accreditation fees , then we might start
> to get close .
>
> This unfortunately wont happen though as it required some form of
> National cooperation between the various Rail jurisdictions to
> implement , and  cooperation is a word that rail jurisdictions dont
> understand.
>
> MD
>
>