Re: My trip to Adelaide (was The overland - input wanted)
Michael Walker (walker@hotkey.net.au)
Thu, 23 Apr 1998 22:40:16 +1000
I'm not sure rail operators will have much say over track upgrades. For a
start, railways contribute around $80m a year through diesel fuel excise
which they never used to have to pay. This money sure as hell doesn't go
back into rail - it pays for general things or worse for road upgrades. Good
when the underdog pays for improvements to the near-monopoly, like Lotus or
Corel paying a levy on each sale of their office software suites to go
towards development of the Microsoft product.
Anyway, the rail operator money goes to the track owner (eg Victrack or
equivalent in each state) who then can spend it. Lets say for a minute we
have a squeeze on cash and the owner (Vic Govt) starts trying to reduce
costs. It gives itself a dividend each year equivalent to a proportion of
the profit. Then the dividend is larger than the profit and the organisation
now makes a loss. Where will track improvements come from then? Government
funding? Not likely! I would be surprised if track standards improve under a
horizontally divided railway. (If in doubt of this scenario, please think
back to Victorian TAC who I believe were in a similar situation recently -
at least in the last 5 years).
The only way track standards will improve is under a vertically
integrated railway. At least the incentive there will be improved
competition with the real enemy - long distance road transport, plus getting
higher fees from other users for higher quality track.