Re: Melbourne to Darwin

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

In article <3592b667.0@139.134.5.33> "Ben Staples" <BenKim@bigpond.com> writes:
>From: "Ben Staples" <BenKim@bigpond.com>
>Subject: Re: Melbourne to Darwin
>Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 05:24:34 +1000

>I have to say, the can-do attitude of this newsgroup has seriously faded.

>How hard would it be to run a double stacked train through Sydney from south
>to north?


Irrespective of how hard it might be , the question that needs to be asked is 
why would you want to do it.
If double stacked trains are to be run from south to north thru Sydney then 
they must come from somewhere.
Currently anyway double stacked trains cant run basically anywhere on the main 
southern line due to the tunnels between Picton and Goulburn , and they cant 
get into melbournes Dynon terminal because of the Bunbury St tunnel.
they cant run east of Keswick due to the tunnels in the Adelaide hills , and 
cant run north of Sydney to Brisbane due to all the tunnels between Sydney - 
Maitland and on the Nth Coast line.
Sure it would be engineeringly possible to lower the floors in all the tunnels 
but to what end .
The costs would be horrific, and even if the Feds or whoever had the money to 
spend , it would be far more wisely spent simply fixing up the current 
alignments.
Double stacking isnt needed until we hit the limit for train lengths and 
loadings on the main interstate lines , which currently we are nowhere near.

cheers
MD