Re: Overland Upgrade

[Neil Waller <nwaller@denr.sa.gov.au>]

Roderick Smith wrote:
> 
> More detail in Melbourne's papers.  The work is in association with the
> cutback to five nights per week.  First-class sitting will be eliminated.
> The AJs will be converted into lounge cars with dining tables for first
> class passengers (just after the lounge cars were withdrawn).  ASR is
> following in the psychological wake of its predecessor:
> Trains are cruise ships for tourists, not intercity services.
> Two classes: extortion and steerage.
> Useless scheduling.
> 
> Ghan comes to Melbourne from November; continues to Sydney from April.
> --
> Regards
> Roderick Smith
> Rail News Victoria Editor
> 
> Lachlan Smith <lsmith@senet.com.au> wrote in article
> > For those interested, I just saw on the channel 7 news (Adelaide) where
> GSR
> > is to spend $1,000,000 upgrading the Overland rollingstock.


GSR had an advert in Saturday's Advertiser which extolled the
"improvements"
in the Overland Service.

Quite misleading, I thought it was.   And not really improvements.

I fail to see why a city of 1 million and a city of 3.5 million could
not
support at least 2 passenger rail services a day if those services were
fast.

With a 3 hour improvement in times this means a 9 hour service between
Adelaide and Melbourne.   OK the track needs improvement but the railway
operating company does not own the track because of our "competition
policy"
in Australia.   Rail competes not only with road, sea and air, but,
quite
illogically, with itself.

A vertically integrated railway covering at least Kalgoorlie to Albury
with
onward running rights to Perth, Sydney and Brisbane makes much more
sense
than the shambles in place now.

And make it privately owned so its existanse depends on its performance,
and
its performance depends on its capital outlays.

Similarly why should 2 cities of 3.5 - 4 million people not have at
least
3 daily passenger trains between them if those services were fast.

But the rail system in Australia does not really encourage this.

-- 
Neil Waller	(nwaller@denr.sa.gov.au)
Department of Environment Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs
Telephone:	Oz: (08) 8204 9218; International: (618) 8204 9218
Mail:		GPO Box 1047, ADELAIDE 5001     Australia

Unless explicitly attributed, the opinions expressed are personal
and not those of DEHAA or the South Australian Government.