Re: Standardisation

["David & Jan Winter" <winterd@icenet.com.au>]

If there were serious through traffics on offer, Talgo-style gauge change
would have
happened long ago. Likewise, when the Bunbury line went 50kg, the investment
increment
to add dual gauge would have been marginal if there were traffics. The point
has been
made here that there isn't the volume of interstate traffic to provincial
centres to
even meet such relatively modest hurdles as that. The main point is that
existing
narrow gauge branches with 20 and 30km/h restrictions for 16t axleloads
can't be changed to dual gauge without new sleepers. That kills the
economics stone dead.

Someone posted that standardising ALL of Australia to 3'6" gauge would be
readily achieved, to which I say "not since concrete sleepers."

DW

Ben Staples <98711576@student.hawkesbury.uws.edu.au> wrote in message
<7dhbnp$ofq@ob1.uws.EDU.AU>...
>With all the opinions, comments, beliefs, etc etc concerning squeezing the
>rails a little bit closer in country Victoria, I wonder if there would be
>any advantage in squeezing the rails a bit further apart in Western
>Australia. I don't know much about WA but I'm curious.
>
>Ben Staples
>
>