Re: [Vic] Age: Train fare pledge dumped

[amorton@mudguard.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)]

>> > I just wonder whether the potential population base in rural Victoria
>> > is enuf to make a profit making rail service viable.
>> > Australia is generaly by world standards sparsely populated for the
>> > size of the country,and this is the case in Victoria as well.
>>
>> Sweden has twice the population of the state of Victoria and is three
>> times the size. It has excellent regional public transport.

In article <931hik$tpm$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <james_shugg@my-deja.com> wrote:

>... and a totally different philosophy about what the public sector
>should provide, and how it should be funded.

Not really - they just apply the same principles to public transport funding
that our governments apply to road funding.

Given the Victorian government reckons it can afford to fork out its share
of $1 billion for the Scoresby Freeway, for which no-one has produced a
convincing rationale, it's clear there is no shortage of public money
available for transport in Australia.  It's all a matter of priorities.

In any case, competently run rail systems like that in Sweden tend not to
lose money hand over fist as you seem to suggest.  It's all too easy to be
fooled by Australia's world's-worst-practice public transport systems into
imagining that things must work the same way everywhere.

Regards,
Tony Morton

Public Transport Users Association             http://www.ptua.org.au/