Re: Meeting with Speedrail

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

David & Jan Winter (winterd@icenet.com.au) wrote:
> route developed right along the coast from north of Newcastle (Forster,
> Tuncurry?) right through Nowra before climbing inland to Goulburn and
> Canberra. I see the greatest community and commercial benefit arising from
> such a development, but accept that cost minimisation favours the shortest
> line of route to Macarthur or thereabouts.

You have to look at the VHST in context. If you go via Wollongong/Nowra,
you won't break 3 hours to Melbourne. 3 hours is the magic number vital to
cutting into air traffic. You'd also have to find somewhere to climb the
Great Dividing Range, which would be costly in terms of both money and
running times.

Also, the Campbelltown and Parramatta catchments are much bigger in terms
of potential passengers. Impulse Airlines looked into operating commuter
flights from Albion Park to Canberra, but there wasn't enough potential
traffic to justify a single 19 seat turboprop on any weekday.

Cheers
David