Re: AusRail'99 exhibition

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

I had a look around the exhibition this afternoon and I wasn't overly
impressed. Even for a trade exhibition it was bad. The displays were
either pointlessly flashy or mind numbingly spartan.

A few highlights were:
- display by JR Central featuring the Nozomi 700 Shinkansen and the
maglev. They were definately more open about their maglev technology that
Transrapid is!
- mockup of the Clyde 4GT.
- a QR self promotion audiovisual experience, which although rather over
the top was interesting and informative.

The people staffing the displays were very keen to say how good they are,
but at the slightest political or technical question they would clam up.
Having said that, being there as part of the media probably didn't help. :)
The exceptions were Westinghouse and JR Central who were very willing to
talk. The most reluctant to talk were Freight Victoria and Adtranz.

So for those of you who didn't make it, you didn't miss much.

Cheers
David