Re: Ararat rail return at a crucial stage

["Les Chandra" <les_chandra@asparagus.hotmail.com>]

"John Wayman" <trecker@bigpond.com> wrote in message
3ac12730$0$25471$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3ac12730$0$25471$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> Thank you Graeme for seeing the validity of the argument. Railways are
> fantastic for moving large volumes of freight and passengers.

That has been the railway 'industry expert' line in Australia for the last
40 odd years. That has resulted in rail freight and passenger travel in
Australia dropping away to almost nothing. Using this argument, railways
have effectively surrendered, and let governments spend multi-billion
dollars on a road network that has subsidy many times more than rail ever
would.

The line from
> Ballarat to Ararat was once part of one of Victoria's most important rail
> lines. Now it is irrelevant, not needed because of the standard gauge line
> that follows the easier grades to Geelong.
>
> If the line was restored would it ever be upgraded beyond a rattly
passenger
> only branch line? If not, then the superior riding qualities of buses on
the
> adjoining national highway are by far the most passenger friendly option.

Except that experience shows that passengers prefer rail every time. Replace
a train with a bus and patrongage falls. It happened on this line, and even
more clearly on the Albury line when a mid-day train was replaced with a
bus. People from the Wimmera would prefer a rail service. A bus to Ararat is
a reasonable half-way point. A bus all the way to Ballarat isn't.

> Investment in rail should be made in areas that can show what modern
trains
> are capable of, rather than throwing away money on a line with no chance
of
> extension, which serves no communities along the way (and will not
generate
> any freight), between two centres that have existing rail services, but on
> two different gauges!

It is a joke to say that Ararat has a rail service.

> Railways are commercial enterprises, and their purpose should be to
generate
> profits. They aren't built as a Gunzel paradise to be heavily subsidised
by
> industries or government,

See notes re roads

Les