Re: Transrapid abandons Sydney-Canberra

[rodh@zip.com.au (Rod Hibberd)]

David Bromage (dbromage@omni.com.au) wrote:
: Page 1 of Wednesday's Canberra Times says that Transrapid has deemed the
: Sydney - Canberra line not to be economically viable. An unnamed
: Transrapid source (Phil Sellars?) took the journalist to lunch to advise
: this, and to say they Transrapid would be pushing for Federal, New South
: Wales and Victorian government funding to build a Sydney - Wollongong -
: Melbourne line via the coast.
: 
: My comments:
: 
: By Transrapid's own estimates, a coastal line would cost $28.5 billion
: excluding trains. The inland TGV line would cost $12 billion in total,
: less the $3.7 billion for the current Sydney - Canberra project.
-snip-

Does anyone really take this 'me too' attitude to european style
trains seriously? In the unlikely event a Syd-Can TGV can be put
in for $3G7, and assuming you can find a mug to put that kind of 
spondulix into the hands of a developer, at how many months before 
the thing goes belly up flat broke and dies?

 -RodH-
rodh@zip.com.au  vox +61-2-955-00-395  fax +61-2-956-00-356
                 Rod Hibberd at Leichhardt Australia