Re: 422s - Have they been Sold?

["Exnarc" <gwrly@netspace.net.au>]

Maurie Daly <mauried@commslab.gov.au> wrote in message
mauried.407.37C365F5@commslab.gov.au">news:mauried.407.37C365F5@commslab.gov.au...
> In article <37C34A50.DEDAA84E@acay.com.au> Bob <alco@acay.com.au> writes:
> >Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 11:43:45 +1000
> >From: Bob <alco@acay.com.au>
> >Subject: Re: 422s -  Have they been Sold?
>
> >You are correct. Freightcorp can now sell to whoever they want and don't
want
> >to. Recently some 48 class units were stripped of all useful parts and
sent to
> >scrap with a deal whereby the scrappies got the shell but the bogies were
> >returned. These units were never sold or put up for any form of public
disposal.
> >It is apparent that Freightcorp don't want their competitors like Austrac
and
> >Silverton to buy any more locomotives yet are happy to let associated
private
> >operators like Northern Rivers and Manildra and Cargils have cheap
locomotives
> >without having to bid for them through any public disposal system.
Personally, I
> >don't know how they are allowed to do this. In the UK, EW&S, were
prevented from
> >doing this very thing.
> >Cheers
> >Bob
>
>
> Its not just Freightcorp who are guilty of this sort of activity.
> NRC have done exactly the same thing with stored DLs and Cs .
> The problem with Corporatization of Govt utilities where the Corporation
> is still Govt owned is that they are trying to behave like private
companies
> who cant see the forest for the trees.
> Railways still seem to think that their opposition are other Railways and
they
> either cant or wont see that the Road Industry is the real competitor.
> The hoarding of locos and rollingstock for that matter simply puts less
trains
> on the rails, raises the costs of running the existing trains thru higher
> track access charges (access charges are amortised over the total number
of
> trains who use the network,the less trains the higher the charges per
train.)
> and reduces the total number of Rail players.
> Freightcorp beleive that there are already far too many players and would
like
> to see just one or two at the most , with them naturally as one.
> The end result of this stupidity is that eventually we will end up with
just
> one or two rail operators who have at the most 5 - 10% of the competitive
> land based freight market, with road having all the rest.
> The two rail companies may indeed be very competitive between each other
but
> is this what we want to achieve , its certainly not in the public
interest.
>
> MD

Maurie,

I agree (partly) with what you say, the rail industry will never advance
until it realises who the enemy is.

However, the real problem is that there are to many players for to small a
ball.

Free market economics may work well in the UK, Europe or North America when
it comes to rail, but the traffic which (equates to profit) is to small and
the distances are to great in Australia for rail to succesfully compete with
other rail companies. As I said road traffic is the enemy of rail and thats
where the competition should be.

Maybe we can have several rail companies, but maybe they need to take a leaf
from Freight Victoria and restrict their operations to regions, work in
conjunction with other railways not against them???

Bob.