>pcc@ocean.com.au (Leslie Brown) wrote:
>>but;
>>money=Melbourne to Darwin.
>>I'll bet money over votes any day.
>>Les Brown.
>Hi Les
>I would not bet money over votes, unless it was the Pollies
>giving "our" money away at election time.
>You have to find somebody with the private money first.
>This screwball scheme has even less chance than the Alice to
>Darwin Line, and it will join all the others in the dust bin
>of Australian Railway schemes.
What I meant by money over votes is typically what was announced
today; that the federal government will chip-in $100 million to fund
the Darwin to Alice Springs line the estimated cost of which is $1000
million. Between the three governments (S.A., N.T., and Commonwealth)
all they can raise is less than a third of the total cost, the balance
($700 million) has to come from private enterprise for a railway that
has been described as starting from nowhere and going nowhere.
If I were to invest in a railway to Darwin, I would find it more
logical for a high-speed line that starts at Melbourne, through NSW
and QLD to Darwin, with a possible high-speed branch to Brisbane. The
reason I would favour this route, even though it would kill off
Melbourne as THE major Australian port, is because it picks up more
freight en-route.
Private enterprise could conceivably build this line because it would
make more money than an Adelaide-Tarcoola-Alice Springs Darwin line
that goes through the most unproductive part of the country. The only
freight it would pickup was what was coupled up in Keswick yard and
s.f.a. for the next 3000 kms
The $300 million incentive is nothing compared to the amount of extra
freight revenue that could be generated by a route through the eastern
states. That alone would justify the much larger cost in a
Melbourne-Darwin line.
Both the SA and NT govts. have had their share on the table for the
last 3 years according to a Rail 2000 spokesman and private industry
didn't even make a nibble. An extra $100 million is hardly going to
cause a feeding frenzy.
It is the economics of the line that will attract private enterprise
to connect Darwin by rail rather than political pork-barrelling at
election time.
One of the promises made by Whitlam in his last election, and Malcolm
Frase too, I think, in his last election, was for an Alice-Darwin
line. They both lost.
Sorry Tell, but I think the Alice would be better off as a prime
tourist destination, rather than a 10 minute crew-change (:-)
Les Brown.