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

["James C." <james_ccj@optusnet.com.au>]

The first thing he announced to the media after FA(F-Vic at the time) took
over was FA will work WITH TRUCKS.(Sorry, I will throw away my cap lock) .
not against it.

He said he will make truck companies cooperate with trains so that freight
can be delivery on time as well as getting extra business for both side.
(possibly door to door delivery was what he meant)

Cheers
James






> 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.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ------------
>
> 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.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ---------
>
> 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
> >
> >
>
>