> "The Age" newspaper on Wednesday 8/4/98 carried an article
> stating that V/Line Freight would be sold along with the
> tracks. Juicy bits included:
> "State owned tracks in the country will be included in the
> V/Line Freight business, although other train companies
> will be able to use the tracks under an open access regime"
> "The main groups expected to bid are Australian Transport
> Network, which already owns Tasrail, the Rail America/Serco
> consortium 'Freight Victoria', and the US group Genesee &
> Wyoming"
It would be a mistake to sell the tracks too. The UK did not make this
blunder, but New Zealand did.
The railway tracks in New Zealand were leased in perpetuity for $50 a
year to Tranzrail (controlled by Wisconsin Central) when the former NZ
Rail was sold in 1993.
Now nobody else can get access to the tracks in Auckland and Wellington
for the purposes of running light rail along the rail alignments.
Dave McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand