Re: Vic opposition calls for more sg lines

[Craig Haber <albatross@harnessnet.com.au>]

Hi,

IMHO, standardisation of the western Victorian lines, and any more of the
system, is one enormous mistake, and should not have happened.

The following should (and could) have been done:
As is now to Nth Geelong 'C'
Independant BG/SG lines Nth Geelong'C' to Gheringhap
As is now Gheringhap-Maroona
Independant BG/SG lines Maroona-Dimboola (ie, as per Broadmeadows-Albury)
Convert Dimboola-SA border

ie, as is the case on the North East, the SG would have been independant of
the rest of Victoria's rail operations.

My reasons for the above:
Yes, the above would have cost more than was spent at the time on the
western Victoria conversion.  But how much more is it now going to cost us
to convert the rest of the state?  And it is extremely unlikely (suburban
area, Warrnambool line, Gippsland line etc) that everthing will go SG, so we
have taken one big step back for this state by worsening the break of gauge
problem.

There are not major traffic flows from Victorian intrastate lines to the
interstate network, ie, there's not a big volume of freight from say
Deniliquin to Sydney, or Mildura to Adelaide.  So where are the savings?  I
believe there is substantial paper traffic from Maryvale is transhipped onto
NRC trains at Dynon - but despite this, the East Gippsland line is generally
considered not to be converted to SG.  What difference does it make whether
export rice from Deniliquin to Melbourne goes on BG or SG?  And lets say the
Mildura line gets converted, the Warrnambool line will not - it will be
extremely hard and expensive to get SG from Nth Geelong through Geelong and
out to Waurn Ponds, where substantial traffic from the Mildura line goes to.

Conversion of parts/all of Victoria is going to have a negative impact on
passenger services.  I would anticipate Swan Hill will go, rollingstock for
Albury/Shepparton will need to go onto SG, facilities need to be developed
for their maintenance, and by creating a captive fleet of cars and loco's,
inflexibility occurs.

Maurie Daly wrote:

> It would be far more beneficial to use such limited funds to cut the
> costs of the existing operators over the existing lines than simply
> spending money guage converting lines.

I agree with what you say there Maurie, IMHO, standardisation may prove to
be the second biggest mistake ever made in Victoria, the biggest being
sticking with BG all those years ago....but we all know that was NSW's fault
anyway :)

Any further conversion is big money spent for little return.

Regards,
Craig.
--
Craig Haber
albatross@harnessnet.com.au
Rail Operations Officer, West Coast Railway
Web Page Developer, Railway Enthusiast, Essendon Football Club Fanatic
http://www.harnessnet.com.au/ch/
I haven't really lost my mind - it's backed up on disk somewhere......