Re: Road Cost Recovery.

[telljb@OZ.ozemail.com.au (Tell)]

bill@underpantscollective.com.au (Bill Evans) wrote:
>May I be so presumtious as to suggest that there is a third
>alternative. How about corpratisation? Westrail has been corpratised
>and last year returned a nett operating profit. I believe this was the
>first time in it's history, and despite being sadled with the full
>costs of perway construction and maintenace costs.

Please, corporatisation is another pea and thimble
trick used by governments.  I have seen enough.
Westrail and their government are no exceptions.  

>Simple! Remove perway construction and maintenance costs from the
>railways' operating budgets and fund them from general revenue, like
>roads, then charge the railways the same fees and taxes road transport
>pays. This one simple administrative change would reduce rail freight
>charges by at least 30%, and overnight all the long haul trucks just
>disappear.

And give the money to the states I presume.  
Heh Heh ......you don't really think they will spend
all of it on the national trackwork do you.?  
The present bunch of state and federal rail admins
could not organise a chook raffle.
Long haul trucks disappear overnight, you are joking.

>Power cars to keep reefers running would also be a help.

Funny you should mention that, Australian National used
power cars for refigerator containers years ago.!

Cheers

----Tell
Alice Springs NT