Re: A thumbs up to trains

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

On Sat, 7 Apr 2001 08:33:59 +1000, "tony bailey"
<mercuryworldtvl@one.net.au> wrote:

>"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> Trains , unfortunately, cant deliver
>goods to my corner shop.
>>
>> MD
>
>
>Maurie -
>
>No one seems to have said that they should, and, presumably, anyone who did
>say it would be silly. But you still persist in adding it to many of your
>posts

Its not silly Tony.
Obviously rail cant physically deliver goods end to end , but they
must be able to offer the service .
Customers arnt interested in contracting a trucking company to get
their containers from their premises to a rail terminal , sending
their goods by train and then at the end having to do the reverse.
Who pays all the double handling charges ??
Rail companies need to operate their own trucking fleets to provide a
seamless service , which currently none of them do .
Its also not practical to try and break the trucking industry up into
small bits and call one "long distance or competing with rail" and
another which doesnt compete with rail.
Its all the same industry.
In Canberra where I live ,road provides 99.9% of all the goods and
services to the city.
The trucks come every night from Sydney,Melbourne and Wagga and
deliver the goods directly to the end customer .
It is these trucks that are directly competing with rail.
If you get rid of these long distance trucks then there will be no
deliveries at all.
Apart from fuel, which still comes by train , the rail industry doesnt
even make a token effort to deliver goods to Canberra.

MD

>
>What people are concerned about here is longer distance movement. How long
>may be a moot point as "Port Link" and associated operations seem to have
>proved.
>
>Having said that of course, there could very easily be a place for electric
>powered deliver vehicles running on Trolley Bus overhead or on tram tracks -
>they have existed in the past!
>
>--
>Tony Bailey
>Mercury World Travel
>Mercury Travel Books
>mercuryworldtvl@one.net.au
>
>
>