Re: Freight Victoria Starts Today 1/5/99 but what of MPI???

[steam4me@enternet.com.au (Yuri J Sos/Melbourne AUS)]

On Sat, 1 May 1999 17:37:13 +1000, "Grahame Ferguson"
<grahamef@users.mcmedia.com.au> wrote, and I selectively quote:

>On a new front since Rail America are supposed to be taking over today, so
>what has become of MPI (aka Morrison-Knudsen).  MPI were supposed to have
>bought Freight Victoria's locomotives and leased them back to FV??
>
>The sale to MPI was hoped to have financially bolstered FV.
>
>Now who is maintaining the FV locomotives, has Goninans risen from the ashes
>like a Phoenix??(my apologies to Clyde for the analogy).
>
>From RailAmerica's web site..... this quote

"Throughout the eighteen month acquisition process for V/Line, we have
been able to identify a number of new business opportunities as well
as areas of cost reduction which we believe should result in a greatly
improved operation. We have also successfully negotiated contracts to
outsource the maintenance of equipment and maintenance of way with two
of the world's most prestigious engineering contractors.
(http://www.railamerica.com/0499fvcl.html)

They haven't named who the contractors are, but would you call
Goninans one of the "world's most prestigious engineering
contractors"? (not meaning any disrespect to Goninans, but are they
major players on a world scene?)

I rang FV on Thursday asking if they were having an official launch or
release of colour scheme and the person on the phone said that that
information couldn't be made available - I think ATN's threat to move
into Vic has made FV a little paranoid.

>From the rumours that abound from those who were retrenched (as they 
>always do), FV philosophy is one of Short Line running- i.e. slow 
>speeds on minimum standard track, such as T classes back on slow 
>freights instead of Main Line Locos on new track.  Will we ever see an 
>upgrading as mooted? 

It's interesting to note that Sunshine - Ballarat and Albion - Bendigo
are now passenger only lines with the Merbein superfreighters being
routed via Nth Geelong and the Deniliquin trains via Toolamba.

One theory that makes sense to me that I heard the other day was that
the reason for this is that FV can say to the Vic Gov "look, we're not
interested in these two lines, as far as we're concerned they can be
mothballed, so if you want to run passenger trains, you'll have to pay
us to maintain the line to 115-130km/h standards."  

You see, with lines where there is both passenger AND freight traffic,
FV has to maintain the line to 80km/h standards, then the Vic Gov
chips in with the extra cost to raise the speed limit from 80km/h to
115-130km/h.  So if the Mel-Bendigo line is singled, FV can say "it's
the Vic Gov's fault, not ours."

This way, they don't have to pay to maintain two long lines they don't
really need.

Very clever.

Regards

Yuri
-- 
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Yuri J Sos
Melbourne VIC AUS

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