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

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <34D192E0.7DA77AF4@xtra.co.nz> Bill Guest <wguest@xtra.co.nz> writes:
>From: Bill Guest <wguest@xtra.co.nz>
>Subject: Re: Railways in the 21st century  What is the future
>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 21:44:16 +1300

>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.


Whilst the above is the desired outcome,the chances of it becoming reality in 
the next few years or the next few decades seem remote.
Even with all the talk of rail reform and privatization ,there has been no 
suggestion whatever of the Govt  (both State & Federal) actually giving up
control and ownership of the track itself.
This means that whilst the Govt owns the tracks,any track improvements of 
maintenance will be at the whim of the owner.
Private operators who operate over the tracks will simply be ignored,as they 
are now.
Its not realistic to expect that Rail operators to pay for track improvements 
if they dont own what they are improving.

Ultimately the only solution now is the US model, ie all the Railways in 
Australia are totally privatised,track included, and an Australian equivalent 
of the FRA is established to handle the regs and accreditation / access issues.
Dont hold your breath though, after all its only taken about 100 years to 
achieve the reforms we now have / dont have.

cheers
MD