RE: Geelong likely to get fast-rail link before Ballarat

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@MailAndNews.com>]

>Glancing at the current timetable, the fastest seems to be about 51 minutes
>(weekday 12:40pm Westcoaster).
>Not very impressive is it, only improving by 4 minutes in the last 70 years!
>IIRC, they're only planning on getting it down to about 45 minutes. Someone
>with a better memory than I can probably provide details.

They want to reduce it to 45.

Makes you wonder - do they really need to spend hundreds of millions to take 
six minutes off the trip? And if so, is it worth it?

When the surveys were done as part of the feasibility studies, I don't 
remember the percentages but the biggest reason people didn't use the train 
was because they needed a car in Melbourne (testament to the poor quality of 
metropolitan services) and the second reason was cost. Speed was a long way 
down the list.

Any casual observer (which I am, because I haven't had much to do with the 
PTUA's work on regional rail issues) might ask at this point firstly whether 
these consultants who reckon a cool $800m to take a few minutes off the trip 
on four lines know what theyre doing and second, whether they might not be 
better off improving the frequency and fixing up the connecting buses 
instead.

Vaughan Williams
Secretary
Public Transport Users Association
247 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000
http://www.ptua.org.au