Alice to Darwin Railway, its a comedy show. part two.

["< Tell >" <telljb@ozemail.com.au>]

Following the meeting up here to which the Chief
Minister arrived late due to air travel delays and the
non attendance of the South Australian Premier who had
"a cabinet meeting".  (I understand the Premier has a
few electricity problems.)  
The following may prove of interest.

Let us assume the World as we know it does not end on
midnight 31/12/99. ;-) 

"Concrete sleeper plants will be set up in Tennant
Creek and Katherine." --- official statement.   
Begs the question does it not, where will the sleepers
come from to commence building North out of the Alice.?
Will the plant in Tennant Creek 505 Kms North of Alice
Springs send them back down by road transport, or will
the sleepers to commence track laying come from SA.?
My guess is from SA, but nobody is saying.

Remember the 7000 jobs statement we blew out of the
water in this group.?  
The consortium has stated that it will spend and I
quote, "$2-4 million has been committed to training and
$400,000 to business and development schemes for local
industry." and "100 jobs were expected to be offered to
aborigines."  ....Two to four million on training.???
The builders have said nothing with regards to how many
they will employ nor the fact that specialised track
laying machinery will come with experienced operators.

Given the magnitude and cost of this project I would
suggest it requires an immediate public relations
makeover, after all this line has a very large sum of
tax payers money involved and the general public has
yet to be informed of _exactly_ where the track will go
between Alice Springs and Darwin.!
   
----Terry Burton