Re: News on the VST (Very Slow Train)

[krel4203@netconnect.com.au (Krel )]

On 26 Jul 1998 12:07:37 GMT, "Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>
wrote:

>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.
>
Track speed from Newport to North Geelong A was lifted on Friday to
100 km/h. (A saving of approx 6 minutes!!). 

My guess is the best possible would be 25 minutes Spencer Street to
Newport, then 2.5 hours form Newport to Ararat. This assumes that the
track speed throughout will eventually become 115 km/h. 

>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.

GSR could not get CountryLink to move (platform or time) so have to
arrive on platform one after departure of the daytime XPT service or
long before the arrival of the night service. If GSR use platform two
they have to pay extra to RTS for use of the J class.

Cheers

Krel
All's well that ends.