Re: To :Great Southern Rail Management. a few comments

["Barry Campbell" <campblbm@ozemail.com.au>]

Nic Doncaster wrote in message <6e5opg$74$1@pinah.connect.com.au>...
>mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) writes:


<snip>

>It is interesting to compare the fates of railway town like peterborough,
Pirie
>and Augusta.
>
>Joys boot size is well known by fed pollies, both lib and labour, as a
result
>she has a town with an industry that is , well,  still there (i wouldn't
say
>booming, but who knows, at least she doesn't have a couple of big sheds
working
>as a pidgeon shit factory).
>
>Pirie made a noise, and despite it all still has a little tiny bit of an
>industry running trains from Broken Hill.
>
>Peterborough didn't make a whimper. The last railway employee left the town
last
>year (he is no longer based AT Peterborough).(although an article in a
sunday
>paper about 10 years ago made the towns major attraction look like in my
>opinion, a joke)
>
>Peterborough's claim to fame is the highest rate of unemployment in the
State,
>if not the land,29%. Without the employment of the railways (whether social
or
>for profit) the town has gone nowhere but down. Its banks are cutting
hours,
>shops are roumoured to be cutting back, and house prices, well, sad.There
is
>only one source of reasonable numbers of jobs, the meatworks.
>
>Ultimately, the Fate of Peterborough rests in the hands of its people, they
can
>work to pull themselves and their town up, or as per the post, can sit
around
>and wait for someone to come and help them.
>
>Sorry to spit, but I am sick of people wanting others to solve their
problems.
>
>Nic


I think Peterborough is a different circumstance to Pt P or Pt A. With the
connection of the std gauge through Peterborough ultimately to Pt Augusta
and Adelaide, there was no real need to maintain and extra set of workshops
as it was in the narrow gauge era. Pt Pirie is still a terminal station for
the B Hill ore and so requires a reasonable railway presence. Pt A is
likewise for coal traffic whereas Peterborough is no more than a wayside
stop. Ultimately the other places will stand or fall on things other than
the railway which is, after all, only there because other things are there
for it to serve.


Barry Campbell