Re: Overland to continue 4 another 2 years

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

On Sat, 09 Jun 2001 11:48:25 GMT, "Peter Berrett"
<pberrett@optushome.com.au> wrote:

>
>"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.

You keep using this phrase "support a very fast train".
What exactly do you mean by this.?
People will support any kind of transport medium if they arre willing
to pay the fares .
How about you provide me and the rest of the readers of this newsgroup
with a full economic anaylsis of a Sydney - Melb VFT.
You could include such items as 
1/ The total capital cost of building such a line .
2/ The total cost of all the necessary land acquisitions.
3/ Types of finance sought.
4/ Annual interest payments on the borrowed capital.
5/ Capital cost of a fleet of train sets.
6/ Estimated monthly passenger counts.
7/ Running costs / electricity costs / maintenence costs / salaries.

>From all the above , you will be able to come up with some fares .
I will be fascinated to see the results .

MD