Re: Some NRC info .

[lbrown2@bigpond.com (Brown Family)]

On Mon, 19 Feb 2001 04:22:52 GMT, mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)
wrote:


>Also given now that railways dont have to pay fuel excise the fuel
>efficiency of NRS over the 2 stroke GMs is much less relevant.

Now, what's the price of dieselene again? Didn't it go up a tad not
that long ago and still rising?

The biggest advantage rail has is it's fuel efficiency (1/7th of
rubber on road - I'm sure you read the article in Rail 2000's last
issue, Maurie) and everytime diesel fuel goes up, rail shines
brighter. Since the NR's manage fuel economy better than any other
loco, keeping the NR's with their ability to add and subtract units on
the run according to grades and other condition, makes more sense.

The only good thing that the federal government has done for railways,
in the last eight years has been to keep pushing up the price of
diesel fuel. Whilst they will keep asking for report after report on
the state of Australia's railways until I think they finally get one
that either says the railways do not need any funding at all or one
that says that they're too far gone and should be ripped up and
converted into truck and busways, the increases in fuel has seen
greater passenger numbers and respectable increases in freight
tonnages.

The federal government can build all the freeways they want, but if
the price of petrol becomes too expensive, it's going to be a great
ride when I save up for the fuel.

Les Brown