Marinus van Onselen at the ATA confrence (long) [was Re: Victorian Rail Summit.]

["Adam Dunning" <adamdunning@start.com.au>]

ATA = Australian or Australasian Transport Association

Interesting thing I read today (slightly off the topic of a rail summit),
but it seems that Marinus van Onselen is trying to make friends with the
road freight business.

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pg 40 Truck & Bus Transportation, June 2001

'Rail: no major threat'

The ability of Australian rail companies to compete effectively with road
transport on non-bulk commodity markets will always be severly limited,
according to the cheif executive of Freight Australia, marinus Van Onselen.

Freight Australia is the Victori-based operator of 105 locomotives and 2,600
rail wagons formed when Rail America bought out the state government owned
V-Line Freight in May 1999.

"When I hear my colleagues go on about the wonderful opportunities for rail
and how it's going to take over the world, I remind them that you don't put
on your indicator to pass another train," he said.

"We have to operate on a single dimension where trains have to go in
opposite directions on a single track and if you get it wrong it's really
expensive."

Rail's ability to compete with road was also severely compromised due to the
high competative cost of entering the rail industry and maintaining rolling
stock and access to track.

The day-to-day management of private enterprise railways in Australia was
also made unduly onerous due to the continual interference of the 'deadhand'
of government bureaucracy.

"Not only do we have three different gauges in Australia, we now have six
different access regimes because every state has decided they're not going
to have a single national access regime despite the fact that's part of the
national competition policy," Van Onselen said.

Rail's overall performace would continue to improve as private ownership
increased but its competitive advantage over road transport would still be
limited to long haul routes such as Melbourne-Perth and, shipments of bulk
commodities.
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AND

pg 48 Same mag, same issue

'Even railmen think the Adelaide-Darwin line is doomed'

Former leading federal rail bureaucrat and now cheif executive of Freight
Australia, Marinus van Onselen, has confirmed what we in the road transport
industry have been saying all along: 'Around $1 billion into completeing the
Adelaide-Darwin line just doesn't go'.

"When people from the Northern Territory came and saw me quite some years
ago to explain the great benefits to me, I asked a simple question: 'You
mean you're telling me you're going to spend a billion dollars building a
railway line for one freight train a day? Not my billion dollars!" van
Onselen said.

It was a great pity that around $600 million of taxpayers' funds would now
be spent on the Alice-Darwin link instead of much needed improvements to
existing rail lines and/or roads.{They just had to put that in, didn't
they?}

"Let's just see it for what it is," he said.

"It's not a scheme of national importance - it is not a Snowy Mountains
Scheme.  It's a job creation scheme for South Australia and it's a
short-term one at that - a terrific White Elephant."

"I'm probably one of the few railway guys who gets up in public who says it,
but I don't give a damn - we're not involved and I think it's a bad
mistake."

It would be an understatement to say this went down well in front of van
Onselen's trucking industry audience.
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even though it is from a road transport journal, it does raise some
interesting points.

Adam

"James C." <james_ccj@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
3b14b69f$0$25469$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3b14b69f$0$25469$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
>
> > For all those Victorian Rail Fans out there, here is your golden
> > opportunity to hear all about the Vic Govts plans for Rail
> > revitalization in Victoria.
> > For a mere $2300 you will hear such people as
>
> er...for that amount of money I could get a return ticket from Melbourne
to
> Perth on Indain Pacific's deluxe class. Poor uni. student like me would be
> better spend $ elsewhere. Besides, if I ever going to a railway conference
I
> would prefer to hear from professional and expreienced railway man like
> Vince O'Rourke, or John Kirk rather then a politican that so much into
> Scroseby freeway.
>
>
> Cheers
> James
>
>