Re: Railways in the 21st century What is the future

[Bill Guest <wguest@xtra.co.nz>]

Tell wrote:
> 
> mailman@netspace.net.au (Keith Holley) wrote:
> 
> > What the future of railways in this country as we move to the 21 st
> >century.    After reading some of the posting here  it seem that the
> >governments around the country are hell bent on destroying it.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> [snip]

> What's new about that Keith.?
> Governments never knew how to run railways anyhow.!
> 

Both right, in my view! And there lies the future of
railways in the next century: governments to regulate on
safety and environmental grounds, the operations themselves
to be wholly privatised, and the sooner the better.

I have no doubt that railways have a future. The low rolling
friction of the steel wheel on the steel rail gives the mode
an inherent advantage in energy use and the ability to haul
high tonnages cost-effectively. A railwayman from 1900 would
still recognise a railway today, even if the locos and
rolling stock look a bit different. I believe that a
railwayman from the year 2000 would still recognise a
railway in 2100, because I think the fundamentals will
remain much the same.

However, the nature of the operations will be different:
fewer (if any) "social" services; closure of small stations;
further concentration on bulk products; greater use of
computers for control of trains, freight, and accounting;
more sophisticated but more reliable locomotives and rolling
stock; better utilisation of expensive capital equipment
through better ops management; better trained staff giving
higher productivity; better marketing, more
customer-focussed.