[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Bugger all express services on Hillside Trains (was "No Express Service on CityRail compared to TransAdelaide")
In article <7l1jt6$dc7$1@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton) writes:
>From: amorton@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au (Anthony Morton)
>Subject: Re: Bugger all express services on Hillside Trains (was "No Express Service on CityRail compared to TransAdelaide")
>Date: 26 Jun 1999 04:11:18 GMT
>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.
I fully agree with your sentiments.
The estimate of $12 B I got a few years ago from the Rail2000 Web site and it
is a bit over inflated.
The current estimate for the Current financial year based on the Federal
Budget estimates is $9745 million net , after taking into account all fuel
rebates.
Its hard to find exactly what the feds are spending on roads as the budget
for the Dept of Transport & Regional development is not sufficiantly detailed
but the estimates of total administered grants from this Dept is $2462 M.
Ie if all the DOT grants were spent on roads this would be the figure.
As this figure includes all Transport modes administered by this agency
ie Road,Rail,Maritime and aviation then the road figure is much less than this.
Note that the $9745 million does not include state fuel excise which is also
collected by the Feds,but doesnt show up in the budget estimates.
In the case of State Road spending I cant comment but I am wondering exactly
what the Victorian State Govt is spending such a large amount of money on,
excluding major road developments like the Citylink project which is a Toll
Road.
$1.6 B is enough to build around 500 to 1000Kms of brand new 4 lane highway
every year, given that a new 2 lane road costs around $1 million per km and a 4
lane freeway around 4 M per km.
Are you sure also that this $1.6B doesnt also include the Feds component
since the National Roads Program is counted as a Payment to the States.
I dug up the current table of fuel excise.
Sorry about the formatting.
Table 4: Excise Rates(a)
Commodity
Rates applying from
1 August 1998
$
Rates applying from
1 February 1999
$
Petroleum (per litre)
Leaded Petrol
0.37093
0.37353
Unleaded Petrol
0.34905
0.35149
Diesel (gross)
0.34905
0.35149
Aviation Gasoline
0.01721
0.01733
Aviation Turbine Fuel
0.01796
0.01809
Fuel Oil
0.07243
0.07294
Heating Oil
0.07243
0.07294
Kerosene
0.07243 0.0729
Its fairly obvious from the table that the hardest hit users of the fuel
excise is cars & trucks.
The aviation industry gets away with just about no tax at all.
Since the States all charge their own fuel excise of around 3C per litre and
the Feds charge 37C per litre ,its fair to estimate that the states raise in
total around 8% of what the feds do, ie about $780 M per year which one hopes
they spend on roads as well.
As far as Rail goes ,everyone knows that the playing field is hopelessly
tilted in favor of road, and it is ,and even after the dropping of the Federal
Fuel Tax on Rail still will be because of the Track Access Charges which
incidentally are not of the Federal Govts making.
The most restrictive and excessive Track Access charges are imposed by the
States, namely NSW & WA who have consistantly refused to cooperate in the
creation of a one stop Rail access environment via ARTC, and still do.
There is nothing the Federal Govt can do about this.
Its likely to get worse too, not better as Westrails plan to privatise its
country Rail Network also includes the SG line from Perth to Kalgoorlie.
So we could easily end up with a private operator owning part of the National
Rail Network.
Actually the term National Rail Network is a bit of a joke , there really isnt
any such thing,we still have a network of State owned Railway lines under a
myriad of State sponsored rules and regulations which just happen to connect
at the Borders,nothings much changed in the last 100 years.
MD
PS all these figues are available from the Treasurys Web Site,it just takes a
bit of digging.