CityRail abandoned the Feb 1997 timetable because it didn't work. They
simply went back to the previous one.
>>If you increase the journey time, you will lose passengers. Why do you
>>think passengers prefer the express trains? Because you get to where
>>you're going _faster_. Who (other than railfans (: ) want's to spend
>>all day getting to where they're going?
>
>1800 HP for 4 car trains using steam era track geometry is not going
>to make a sigificently faster service than road, only keep costs high.
It's still faster than driving at legal speeds, and more relaxing. V/Line
was running at about 185,000 passenger journeys per year on the line. It's
now over 300,000. These extra passengers must have come from somewhere.
>Privatisation will not work in Australia because transport costs are
>artifically kept low due to government funding.
Road transport costs are kept artifically low, and rail transport costs
are artifically high. Enterprises such as the Southern Cross Express may
have worked had rail access been available at a similar cost to road.
>Queensland and NSW
>governments care for their railways, otherwise they get voted out of
>government.
Cunnamulla, Quilpie and Winton lost their passenger services. Forsayth and
Dirranbandi are slightly different cases, but also lost their mixed trains.
Did the Victorian government get voted out at the last election?
>As for privatisation, the last truely privately owned
>passenger railway service, as opposed to a tourist opperation was the
>SMR. Did not last long. No profit, no passenger service, thats how
>private companies care.
The SMR passenger services (through NSWGR railcars) ceased as the entire
Richmond Vale operation was scaled down. The last bastion were the coal
trains running out of Stockrington until the mid 1980s, still hauled by
steam but on a shoestring budget and to questionable maintenance and
safety standards. Somebody from RVR or 3801 Limited might to comment on
what condition the 10 class tanks were in when preserved.
One of the WA iron ore railways operates a regular passenger service. I
think it even uses sleeping cars. Are the passenger trains running on the
2' gauge around Port Douglas still running?
>The difference is it costs more in admistration cost to use the
>privatisation structure, and means less revenu is retained by the PTC.
>A properly funded PTC could purchase a cheaper to run modern passenger
>train.
Nobody disagrees on this point, but the government has to WANT to do it.
The current situation is that the PTC now has extra revenue from track
access and other charges, and doesn't have to pay for maintenance of the
rollingstock.
The fact also remains that the government was determined to close the
line. This cannot be disputed. It was only because WCR had a sound bid
that the lines remains open. Passenger numbers have almost tripled since
WCR took over. Trains which used to be 3 cars are now regularly 4 and 5
cars, even up to 8 cars long. How can you see any of this as a bad sign?
Cheers
David