Re: News on the VST (Very Slow Train)

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

The best bg time Melbourne - Ararat was 2.5 h (not the Overland, but
achievable by the sort of train which the Overland has become): 80 km/h.
To achieve this via the current circuitous route (AFAIK ~60 km longer) will
require an average of 106 km/h.  Even after concrete sleepers, the
goat-track route will still be worse.

Anonymous Tell points out that other modes have overtaken rail: but this
was not god-ordained.  Rail has self destructed.  ASR has just changed the
arrival time to 8.45: utterly useless, but certainly in the style of the
1950s.
-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Tell <telljb@ozemail.com.au> wrote in article 
> Unfortunately the Overland has been a marginal train
> for years, even back in the final years of the SAR,
> things were not that bright.
> The decline started in the fifties and has not abated
> since then.  We will probably regret this one day.
> Cars, Buses and Aeroplanes have a lot to do with this.