Re: Lets Standardise instead!

[Gavin Potter <gavpot@ozemail.com.au>]

Maurie Daly wrote:

> .
>
> >> An economic analysis would have to be done regarding Benalla to Oaklands to
> >> figure out whether it should be converted or closed.
>
> >Converted obviously, and extended further north. Ditto Tocumwal.
>
> Why obviously , to make this line economic to guage convert , requires that it
> carry a minimum of 320000 tonnes per annum , just to generate enough revenue
> to pay the interest bill on the capital required to guage convert it .
> This doesnt include any maintenance costs of the new converted line ,or any
> fuel or crew costs .
> This works out at around 1 train per day hauling 2000 gross tonnes ,or 1600
> net tonnes.
> Since there nothing like this sort of tonnage coming off the line
> currently, Im afraid I cant see why its at all obvious.
>
> (Calculations based on 100K per km conversion costs,
> 8% interest rate on $13 million conversion cost
> revenue of 2.5 c per ntk, no costs in guage converting grain wagons or
> branch line locos to run over the new line.)
>
> I think its time that we all began  to realise that freight trains arnt there
> just for the enjoyment  of rail fans,trains are simply a transport medium that
> has to make a profit , if they are to continue to exist.
> This is especially true of private enterprise run railways.
>
> cheers
> MD
>
>

I do believe the Maurie has hit the nail on the head. Rail is there to make a
profit. If there was a line in the North East to be standardized then it would
have to be the Wahgunyah line with an extension into Corowa. Uncle Tobies has a
big factory at Wahgunyah and use to rail out stuff (V/Line did their best to get
rid of the traffic and succeeded) and Corowa has a fair bit of industry.

Is 15 year a sufficient time for an operator to establish itself. We have
discussed what could be standardized and we have talked about possible future
traffic, but it takes money, time and commitment to achieve all this.

We talked about converting the Tocumwal line to SG. They now rail rice from north
of Echuca to Toc via the cross country line, does this me if  Toc is converted we
have to convert that line also, and the Dookie. What about north of Echuca, where
does it stop.

It does seem a little silly to have both BG and SG from Seymour to Albury. There
would defiantly be a cost saving by running only SG north of Seymour, but as
mentioned, what about the Oaklands line. Well this line does have a large quantity
of grain railed off it each year. There is the ADI factory at Mulwala the once
again V/Line did every thing in their power to get rid of the traffic (as I
understand it). There is also a rather large low grade coal deposit at Telford.
The Oaklands line might be a case of spending some money to convert a line to reap
the benefits of closing the BG north of Seymour.

As I said, is 15 years enough to achieve everything that is needed in Victoria.

--

--------------------------------------------------------
Gavin Potter.

 gavpot@ozemail.com.au
 gavin.potter@agric.nsw.gov.au

 http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gavpot
--------------------------------------------------------
"Planning without action is futile. Action without planning
is fatal."  -Alan Speigel.