Re: Overland to continue 4 another 2 years

["Peter Berrett" <pberrett@optushome.com.au>]

"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
3b21e4ca.831141@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3b21e4ca.831141@can-news.tpg.com.au...
>
> Its simply because of the route that the SG line takes to get to
> Newport.
> Peter, can I take from your comments that you havnt actually travelled
> by train from Melb to Adelaide.
> If so , then I suggest you do so before continuing this discussion.
>

I have travelled on the Overland several times - mostly westbound at night.
I am familiar with the route taken (via South Sunshine) however my
experience has been that the train travels this circuitous route at quite a
crawling pace. It seems ot me that it could do the route much faster if
whatever is slowing it down is dealt with.

> >
> >Look at France. Look at the patronage success of the TGV. Plus you have
two
> >major cities with various incentives (football, shopping, cinema...) for
> >people to travel from one city to the other. Build it and they will come.
>
>
> The population of France is 60 million people living in a country
> smaller than the State of NSW.
> Paris alone has a population of 11 million people .
> There is no comparison whatsoever between the European situation
> and Australia .
> We simply dont have enuf people to justify or support very fast trains
> .

Australia's population is found mainly in a small number of capital cities.
Eg Sydney has 3.7+ million people and Melbourne 3.4+ Million. The air route
between these cities is the third largest domestic air sector in the world
(5.4 million passengers). That is more than enuf to support a very fast
train without even taking Canberra, Albury or Wagga into account.

I believe that Brisbane - Sydney and Melbourne to Adelaide likewise could
support very fast trains. Brisbane is Australia's third largest city and has
a population of 1.6 million however when one adds in the Gold Coast to the
South the population is significantly higher. Plenty of population there for
a fast train.

Adelaide has a population of 1.1 million so traffic volumes could be
expected to be lower. However Adelaide has the advantage of only being 725km
(by road) from Melbourne so it is closer than Sydney. In terms of travelling
time at comparable speed, Adelaide would take less time to travel to ex
Melbourne than Sydney provided a relatively direct route was chosen.

There is also another perspective to this. Once high speed services have
been instituted between capitals one would reasonably expect towns along the
high speed route to blossom as these towns will now each have fast rail
links to two major capital cities.

cheers Peter