Re: RIP ASW?

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

>I can't see the arguement that the Cressy line has a lot of curves?

>Sure there are curves, but no more (probably less) than the Ballan route,
>the extra distance is the facture, if you can't improve train speeds
>(because of track conditions) you will never compete on time based freight.
>The other factor is fuel consumption, the extra distance is balanced out by
>the number of notch 8 hours required to climb grades such as Ingleston. As
>for the Ballan Line having CTC, this is correct but what about the 50 odd
>miles from Ballarat to Ararat that would need to be given CTC.

>Another factor is, if you went via Ballan the political ramifications would
>be enormous, you would have to either build (or convert) a seperate fleet of
>Passenger cars to service this corridor, or abandon passenger services
>altogether in favour of buses. (It would be a brave Govt that did that on
>this important corridor). Also the Ballarat yard and its heritage
>classification would be a major headache, one of the reasons for choosing
>the Cressy route was the future possibility of double stacking the route, in
>1994 NRC put it at about $50 million that figure has probably doubled by
>now. (that would I presume include getting around Bunbury Street Tunnel as
>well as  the Adelaide Hills 7 tunnels.

>Cressy is a pain but money on track would fix that. Its got more potental in
>the long run than the other routes.

>Bob.


There are a number of other major problems in the ballarat route.
The first one is getting the SG line across the BG tracks at Sunshine.
A simple grade crossing introduces a heap of train control / access / whose 
trains get priority arguments between the various operators .
We dont want to end up with the Sydney problem where freights are effectively 
put on hold for the morning and evening suburban peaks .
There would also be the contentious arguments about Ballarat pass trains 
competing for paths with Interstate freights .
Ballarat would become a dual guage station with all the problems that the 
complicated point work requires , unless Geelong to Mildura was standardized.
The Cressy line despite its shortcomings is effectively an independant 
interstate line with no local pass trains to contend with , a single operator 
all the way , much easier from a train access point of view.

MD