Re: 422s - Have they been Sold?

["Michael McDonald" <michael.and.colleen.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz>]

You may be a bit pessimistic there with regard to the Darwin line.  The
weekend "Auckland Metroport" trains in NZ may give you an idea of what could
happen if Darwin becomes a major port for containers bound to/for South
Eastern Australia.  Even though the NZ operation is relatively small, the
extra rail traffic generated is noticeable.  How many tonnes do you reckon
could be carried in such an operation?  I don't know what the figures are
for the metroport trains - it may equate to about 10,000 tonne each way
during the period, from just two ships calling at the port.

As for large distances being a problem - conventional thinking is that this
is to rail's advantage !!

There's a bit of "chicken and egg" situation with high speed trains - the
market doesn't exist until you have built the system.  My guess is that it
would be better to have a high speed line which replaces the current line(s)
in regions where traffic density does not warrant having two sets of lines.
It is a compromise, but your existing trains would gain considerable benefit
from a line engineered for speed.

Cheers
Michael

David Langley wrote in message <37C542E3.8FD01231@ancc.com.au>...
>Exnarc wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>Hear, hear. This is the very reason why all these very fast train schemes
and
>the inland rail route to Darwin will not work - we are tooo blooody small.
>
>David.
>
>