>No, I try to avoid the sand Gary.
>We all know NSW and Vic loco's past and present were
>the best in Australia. ;-)
>No body denies that a major reform was well overdue,
>but look at the cost. Pity some of that money on the
>"clean slate" for NRC was not spent on infrastructure.
>As you seem to know so much about National Rail, is
>that 15 year contract with Goninan's for the most
>expensive 120 loco's in history that introduced no new
>technology to Australia, exclusive.?
>Are any other organisations allowed to tender for
>maintenance or future upgrade work on the NR's.?
>Feather bedding is to be deplored, but the new work
>practises and crewing with the present set up is a bit
>of a worry, major accidents in recent times aside.
>The real problem is this, it matters not a jot whether
>we have a conservative or socialist in Canberra, it is
>hard to tell the difference. One of them will have to
>move the goal posts once more, and they have only two
>choices.
>1. Give NRC all national interstate rail freight and
>remove all other competition.
>2. Privatise NRC in the next couple of years because
>if they do not, it will go down the gurgler, there is
>plenty of evidence it is losing business right now and
>there is more competition to come, it will NEVER pay
>off the debt.
>---- Tell
>Alice Springs NT
Its also interesting to note that prior to the creation of NR ,the entire
interstate freight operation , which was then larger than it is
today,(B-doubles are starting to bite.) was able to be handled with the
existing current fleet of locos owned by the various state railroads.
There wasnt any suggestion of unreliability or lack of availability or
interstate freights daily being cancelled due to no locos available.
Now under NR we are expected to beleive that we need an additional 120 locos
to handle the same freight task.
No one doubts that some of the existing state owned fleets were getting
old,the SRA 80s are an example,but its difficult to come to the conclusion
that any of the other locos were.
Also there was no doubt that NR did need some new locos,but the number
purchased simply cannot be explained by any logic.
Indeed NR itself only estimated that it needed 80 new locos in the first place.
Take some existing tonnage figures from NRs own annual report.
10 million tonnes per annum moved in 300 trains per week.
A little bit of elementary mathematics gives a weekly total of 192000 tonnes
per week moved by 300 trains which averages out at only 641 tonnes per train.
Allowing for the average tare to gross tonnage of 20% this means that each
trains load is only around the 769 tonne mark.
Now this doesnt mean that NRs trains are all this size, obviously some will
be larger some will be smaller, but its the total freight task that matters.
Interstate Rail freight in this country is the smallest overall freight task,
all the state Govt systems move more than this within their own states each
year.
Its also worth wondering why NR purchased 4000 HP locos which in hauling
capability are limited to near 3000 HP loco loads by their lightweight axle
load.
With 23 tonnes axle load , you simply cannot effectively get any benefit of of
a 4000 HP loco, if its used for heavy freight trains, 28 to 30 tonnes at a
minimum is needed.
NR now has a $850 million dollar debt hanging around its neck that its
competitors like SCT, TNT and Patricks dont have, neither does G & W.
Its also interesting to note that the above companies dont have any problems
in running their trains with the locos that NR claimed were old and unreliable
NR hasnt as yet even got the full complement of NRs from Goninan , but is able
to find "spare NRs" to run the overland and the IP and presumably the Ghan.
If these new locos were purchased to haul freight trains then why arnt they
doing just that,and why not use locos like the ELs & Dls to haul the passenger
trains, would make much more sense.
The original idea behind NR was a good one , and NR certainly have made a lot
of progress, but a lot of the efficiencies have been gained at the expense of
much longer working hours for crews.
Interstate rali freight in this country cannot compete with road until there
is a level playing field which we dont have at the moment.
This isnt NRs fault nor is it entirely the fault of the federal Govt.
A great deal of the blame must fall on the individual State Rail Authorities
themselves who persist in inplementing multitudinous sets of conficting rules
and regulations on Rail that the Road freight lobby doesnt have to put up with.
Until we have a National Rail Network run by the one crowd with one set of
rules for all, Rail in this country will never compete.
cheers
MD