Re: RIP ASW?

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

In article <379F0489.8E720C00@ancc.com.au> David Langley <del@ancc.com.au> writes:
>From: David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>
>Subject: Re: RIP ASW?
>Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 23:24:25 +1000

>Maurie Daly wrote:

>> The cressy route allows double the loads to be hauled to Ararat than does the
>> Ballarat route which in these days where Rail is struggling to compete against
>> road makes an enormous differance .

>And while we haul the double loads to Ararat via Cressy (round all those stupid
>curves
>like Tottenham, Newport, North Geelong, Maroona and Ararat the truckies will win
>the
>race to Ararat hands down - and laugh while doing it.

>David.

There doing it already and have been doing so for the last 20 years.
What causes industry to favor road over rail is the cost of rail far more so 
than the running time .
Even running trains by Ballarat is still far slower than the truckies.
When the good old Vline were happily running their trains via Ballarat to 
Adelaide their direct costs were 11.3 c/ntk , the highest and the worst in 
Australia and their revenue was only 3.6 c/ntk,when the truckies were just 
nudging 4 c/ntk , now down to 3.5 with Bdoubles.
NRC is just making 2.5 c/ntk and are still not competitive with road.
Its no coincidence that the Railway which has .and still does for that matter 
have the best share of the road freight market is the TAR under the old AN 
simply because of the loads that could be carried and the absence of steep 
grades.
The most cost effective railways in this country are the Pilbara Iron Ore 
roads with net costs of 1 c/ntk and not surprisingly maximum grades against 
loaded trains of no more than 1% ,something that Govt Railways can only dream 
about.

MD