Re: Rail services return to Cooma

[David Bradshaw <alkdrmc@ozemail.com.au>]

Hey,

I agree that an important aspect of public transport is minimising the
number of mode/service changes a passenger has to make. This is one
strength a, say, busway has over a rail service. It is also why, yes,
buses are superior in taking people to the snow.

The reason I was so curious was that on driving to and from the snow
this season, I noticed the railway track and, from the road, it appeared
to be in OK condition and of relatively straight alignment. Therefore, I
reasoned, was there the possibility of running a higher speed train
(much faster than road) say as far as Cooma, before changing to buses
for transport to the various resorts/fields. Of course the time of the
train journey would have to be significantly shorter than by road to
counter the need for a change in mode.

The trip to the snow from Sydney is a 6hr-ish journey by road from
memory, and I thought the possibility of cutting a bit of time and
effort off this could be acheived.

Anyway, thanks for info!

DB.


petan@ion.com.au wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> The bus could take you directly to your snowfield accommodation and
> you probable would get there a lot faster than the train to Cooma than
> try to organize a bus to the snowfields.
> 
> Cheers
> Peter Cokley
> 
> On 12 Dec 98 21:34:58 GMT, "David Bennetts" <davibenn@pcug.org.au>
> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> >David Bradshaw <alkdrmc@ozemail.com.au> wrote in article
> ><3673614F.5739@ozemail.com.au>...
> >> For what reason was the Cooma line closed in the first place? It would
> >> appear to service a large area of Southern coastal NSW.
> >>
> >> Furthermore I understand a weekly train used to run to Cooma during the
> >> snow season - surely this (albeit seasonal) service would be a passenger
> >> drawcard, considering the drive and the nature of the roads to the snow
> >> (although admitadly a road journey is still required to get from Cooma
> >> to say Jindabyne.
> >>
> >
> >Passenger services were withdrawn because there were only a handful of
> >people using the service.  The daily DEB set service would typically carry
> >about half a dozen people in either direction.  With snow season services,
> >running one train each weekend for possibly eight weekends a year (now
> >there's no carriages to make up a train anyway) wouldn't help much.
> >Freight lingered on for a few months on the line with a once a week
> >service, until one of the wooden bridges was condemned.
> >With virtually no passengers and no freight, there was really no reason to
> >spend millions on rebuilding life expired bridges.
> >
> >David Bennetts
> >Canberra
> >