Re: Bugger all express services on Hillside Trains (was "No Express Service on CityRail compared to TransAdelaide")

[amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)]

In article <mauried.258.37733FF1@commslab.gov.au>,
Maurie Daly <mauried@commslab.gov.au> wrote:

>Dont laugh, cars are one of the greatest money makers that the Feds have got.
>Fuel excise received mainly on petrol, ie paid for by you and me mug motorists,
>rakes in a whopping $12 billion per annum in revenue, and the Feds only have 
>to give back around $1 billion PA for roads , so a nice $11 billion profit PA 
>is made thanks to cars , why would you want to get rid of em.

This is changing the subject somewhat, but I'll take you up on this.  You
need to be careful with figures like these, considering that there are three
tiers of government and complicated money trails between all three.

Most spending on roads is at the state and local level.  The $1 billion you
quote is for the National Highways program, which accounts for only a small
part of the network.  I'm not sure what your $12 billion figure represents;
is it the fuel excise revenue from all sources, including rail and off-road
uses?  Is it just the Federal component or does it include state taxes as
well (now collected by the Commonwealth on the states' behalf)?  Given that
in 1990 the total revenue from petrol tax for motor vehicles was around
$6 billion, I suspect this figure has been padded somewhat.

Anyway, let's look at where the real money is spent.  From the Victorian
State Budget figures, one learns that Victoria alone is to spend around $1.6
billion on roads in the coming financial year.  (We spent a similar amount
last year also.)  From what I make of the figures, around half of this
spending is funded by state petrol taxes (which may or may not be part of
that $12 billion), and the rest from the pot of money the Commonwealth gives
to the states each year.  The latter comes out of Commonwealth consolidated
revenue, just as the bulk of fuel excise goes into consolidated revenue.
If you add up the road budgets for all the states and territories, I think
you'll find they make a fair demand on that $12 billion and may even exceed
it.  Conclusion: motorists are scarcely being ripped off.

Another thing to consider: the local roads that make up the bulk of the
road network are scarcely funded at all by federal and state governments.
They're a local government responsibility, and are paid for largely from
your municipal rates.  No gouging of motorists here, except in so far as
motorists are also ratepayers.

Make no mistake: it costs an awful lot of money to build and maintain a
high-quality road network.  Motorists contribute a large part of the cost,
though I believe not all.  Much of the real spending is concealed in the
minutiae of budget documents at all three levels of government.

ObRail: As I mentioned, fuel excise is collected not just from cars and
trucks but also from rail operators, in addition to exorbitant track access
fees.  Yet spending on rail track maintenance, if any, has been minimal.
So we have the situation where much of the revenue collected from rail
operators is spent on roads - hardly a level playing field.

Cheers,
Tony M.