Re: Cost of Alice Springs to Darwin.

Maurie Daly (mauried@commslab.gov.au)
Wed, 27 Aug 1997 10:40:31 GMT

Here are some interesting figures for the Adelaide to Alice Springs Railway.
Initial project cost $145 million.
Total annual tonnage carried 800000 tonnes,(not a lot by normal stds.)
Assuming a freight charge of 3 c per ntk / lower than any truck can achieve
and only 0.5 c above worlds best practice this amounts to an annual income for
NR of $35 million dollars, not great , but not unreasonable for the initial
cost.
I think the issue is whether the Railway should be built based solely on
economic grounds which is what most dopey journalists seem to be pushing.
You can make up your own minds about whether completing the line would be
worth it.

MD

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Maurie Daly
Department of Communications Lab.
Canberra
Australia
mauried@commslab.gov.au
ph 6 2791331
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