Re: Southern Arurora

["David Proctor" <daproc@spam_this.umpires.com>]

Les Brown wrote in message <36e73d25.18017929@news.ocean.com.au>...

>You mean to say that your clients are more concerned with price than
>being on-time?

That is not what I said - the comment that I was responding to said that the
corporate market is not interested in price, rather in flexibility, etc. The
corporate market would LOVE to be able to take advantage of the cheap
airfares that are available to tourists.


>>Should not happen now with open access - they should bee able to pay extra
>>for some priority.
>>
>Should not? Can the anyone give a guarantee on that?

If RailAccess was to have to pay compensation if it was to happen, then yes,
they could.

>And now that Country Link are running it, they are more interested?

Not particularly. You will notice I mentioned originally about private
operators.

>You are 100% correct, but you need to add greater speed and frequency
>to the Australian service in order to approach anything like the
>standard in Europe.

Not really - we ARE talking about an overnight sleeping-car train here.
Frequency is not an issue - you do not want too many trains running the same
route overnight, do you? As regards speed, why is that an issue? 1900 is a
good departure time, and 0700 is a good arrival time.

>Look, I'm not a professional Railway man, and others no doubt could
>correct me and I would welcome that, but since I do keep my eyes and
>ears wide open, I feel that what I am saying does have some validity.

Maybe you should speak to a wider range of corporate travellers. Sydney
airport is a joke, and will only get worse. Business people are faced with
two options: Fly the night before and pay for a hotel; or get up at 3am to
get to the airport for the first flight. Both are unsatisfactory.

>I AGREE with you. But until the "actuals" are realised, running the SA
>would be a joke.

You are only concentrating on parts of what I said. A properly maintained
train, running at a decent schedule (the old 2000 - 0900 was a joke) with
properly trained and motivated staff, priced correctly and properly
marketted, can work.

DaveP