re: Just an idea? Plans for an South-Eastern Suburbs Freight Intermodal Centre.

["JohnMcCandless" <johnmc@topend.com.au>]

Barry Campbell <campblbm@ozemail.com.au> wrote in article
<6mgjhp$jpl$1@news.mel.aone.net.au>...
  
> <snip>
> 
> Victoria must be the only state left with a rail based lcl freight
system.
> AN and Westrail got rid of theirs years ago, Trackfast in NSW bit the
dust
> last year (?) and Q-link in Qld is road operated for much of its
operation.

Sorry Barry, but I'm going to have to correct you on this point.

However, I will declare my bias up front.  I am a Freight Distribution
Centre
(FDC) Supervisor for Q-link at Cloncurry, and any privatisation of Q-Link
will 
have an impact upon my employment.  So I tend to be (too?) defensive of
Q-Link & QR in general.

Q-link road ops are a mainly South East and coastal Queensland operation.
(West to Chinchilla, North to Bundaberg, Rocky to Mackay, Tville to
Richmond, 
Cairns & Mackay, and each indvidual FDCs' to-door operations.)

Traffic from Brisbane to Rocky, Townsville, Cairns & Mt Isa is all hauled
by rail,
which comprises the majority of our traffic.  My FDC (Cloncurry) is on the
Mt Isa 
Branch, and has never had any Q-Link road traffic, except during natural
disasters
when the rail line is cut. 


> In fact, the Coalition had it in its policy to privatise Q-link, which
would
> probably mean that it would become entirely road. So how come V/line can
> still run such a system profitably within such a small area as Victoria?
> 
> Barry Campbell
 
Road haulage has the advantage over rail in the short-haul sector, so I
would
 imagine that V/line would either:

a.  Let Fastrack slowly wither (IMO, this is what is currently happening)
b.  Convert to road transport
c.  Flog the lot off to private enterprise.

John McCandless
johnmc@topend.com.au
++++++++++++++++++
"All conspiracy theories are false..... but the government doesn't want you
to know that..."