Re: V/Line Pass

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

Lineman <grime@sympac.NOSPAMcom.au> wrote in message
7qhkl7$pie$1@perki.connect.com.au">news:7qhkl7$pie$1@perki.connect.com.au...
>
> Exnarc <gwrly@netspace.net.au> wrote in message
> 7qgjqf$2s1u$1@otis.netspace.net.au">news:7qgjqf$2s1u$1@otis.netspace.net.au...
> >
> > > Right
> > > now one side is kicking goals and they other side is a bit
> > > short of star players. As you say the wheel will turn but my
> > > guts tell me it will be a while yet.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > >
> > > GT ( still discussing politics instead of railroads - I must
> > > stop )
> >
> > But for whose side are they kicking the goals?
> >
> > Bob.
> >
> > Just as an aside,and possibly totally unrelated,however it does question
> the building of State assets with the use of ever increasing amounts of
> borrowed money from overseas.
> I remember when the Wonthaggi[Vic] railway line had been long closed and
we
> where in the process of salvaging reusable equipment[which never got
reused
> because of a change of hierarchy who had it all loaded up and taken to
> Melbourne for scrap a couple of years later] Any way one of the
> administration staff from head office was sent down to organise every
thing
> which wasn't already organised and related to me that the Wonthaggi Line
was
> paid for by money borrowed from British financiers back in 1910c and here
we
> where in1986c still paying off the debt and that if the rails where sold
> then the money would go to the said financiers.
> Now I certainly can not attest to the veracity of that mans statement but
it
> sure stuck in my mind.
>
> --
> "Lineman"
> "Speak Lineman"
> Cog'ito Er'go Sum
>
Yes,

That myth has been around the rail industry since the beginning of time.

If you go to any railway in Australia (I've even heard it in Canada) they
will tell you stories of how "We are still paying off debts to the British
for our railways etc. etc."

Whilst I'm sure some pretty hard bargaining was done by the financiers of
the time, no govt would commit itself to such finacial arrangements for debt
that would still be being paid off 100 years later. (I mean if you paid up
enough to cover the interest payments and never paid a single cent off the
principle, the cost of paying out the debt in 1999 would amount to about the
average yearly earnings of a Govt Minister.

Bob.