Re: A thumbs up to trains

[Mark & Roz Creely <mcreely@pnc.com.au>]

Maurie,

Hate to point out a glaring omission, what about TrailerRail?

Customers arrange for trailers to be picked up and dropped off at the terminal.

They are then made up into a train, then sent from Melbourne, Adelaide and
Sydney to Perth.

This is an enormously successful business venture, promoted by you guessed it
National Rail.

Sorry to puncture your balloon 8^)

Regards Mark

Maurie Daly wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >