Re: Road spending campaign.

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

In article <01bd8e2a$a8c204a0$750108d2@computer> "Chris Brownbill" <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au> writes:
>From: "Chris Brownbill" <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au>
>Subject: Re: Road spending campaign.
>Date: 2 Jun 1998 13:34:52 GMT


>Tell <telljb@ozemail.com.au> wrote in article
><6knr6k$5ua$1@reader1.reader.news.ozemail.net>...
>> One of the, dare I say ....dubious things about living
>> in the centre of Australia is that a lot of our
>> imported TV and Radio programs emanate from Sydney.
>> One of these is the John Laws radio programme which is
>> currently running a "fax the bad roads in your area"
>> campaign where listeners around Oz are given a fax
>> number to the Road Transport Federation to complain
>> about poor roads.  They are talking about "billions of
>> dollars _short fall_ in road expenditure".!
>> 
>> It must be time for a Rail Transport Lobby Group with
>> an office in Canberra, live in hope I guess, but maybe
>> the private rail operators will take this on.
>> 
>> ----Tell
>> Alice Springs NT
>> 
>>

>I hear that the results are being eagerly awaited by our esteemed Federal
>Transport Minister.  

>Now, instead of moaning about the lack of a rail lobby, what if readers of
>this newsgroup faxed our nominations for the worst roads - RAILroads.  
>Who's going to argue against the assertion that the worst roads in
>Australia are not the ones paved with rail?  And if anyone in the road
>lobby does argue against it - then they'll have to defend why they're not
>using them.

>My nomination for Australia's worst road is the Melbourne-Adelaide RAILroad.


Lets just for a moment get a bit of realism into this argument.
There is no doubt that the Melb - Adelaide line is in a terrible state, buts 
lets be a bit more specific, and detail just which parts of this line are 
crummy.
Well for a start the section of line from the SA border to Keswick is amongst 
the best quality Govt owned line in Australia, its 47 - 54 kg/m CWR rail on 
concrete sleepers all the way , which incidentally is the part that 
historically the Federal Govt was / is responsible for .
The crummy parts are all in Victoria , and these parts are all the 
responsibility of the State Govt of Victoria , NOT the Federal Govt, so theres 
no value in lobbying the Federal Transport Minister.
The Federal Govt in reality is only going to fund things that it either owns , 
or is directly legislatively responsible for and this doesnt include state 
owned railways.

Theres also no point comparing the amounts of money that the Feds use to fund 
the National Highways and argueing that similar amounts should be spent of 
State owned railways , as the Federal Govt and the States have signed an 
agreement which requires that the Feds provide annual funding for the National 
Highway Network.
There is no such agreement in place for rail, even though three federal 
Transport Ministers have tried over the last 10 years or so to get one in 
place.
In every case the States have refused to sign.

Whilst the States own or are responsible for any parts of the National Rail 
Network things will only get worse / not better .

cheers
MD