Re: RIP ASW?

[David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote:

> 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 .

I find this very hard to believe. This is one of those problems that can be
solved by having one authority being responsible for the train control
operations. Then the problem of your train or mine does not arise, each train is
treated on its merits.

> We dont want to end up with the Sydney problem where freights are effectively
> put on hold for the morning and evening suburban peaks .

A freight train travelling from Campbelltown to Regents Park is a different
matter to one crossing a relatively lesser used suburban line.

> There would also be the contentious arguments about Ballarat pass trains
> competing for paths with Interstate freights .

See above comments re train control.

> Ballarat would become a dual guage station with all the problems that the
> complicated point work requires , unless Geelong to Mildura was standardized.

Would it work any other way.

> 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.

A politically expedient route where the new freight operator wished to avoid the
local passes and the govt bowed to pressure (which is how it looked to the man in
the street) to the detriment of the local Victorian person who used the trains
west of Ballarat. And a lot did. Almost all of whom have been lost to their cars
wish will please the road transport supply coys e.g fuel etc. How about we do
something worthwhile for the total railway picture rather than for a segment of
it. And an apparently not particularly successful segment at that.

David Langley.