Re: Lease Fleets

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <3829D287.C8FBF95C@primus.com.au> Richard <richard_snook@primus.com.au> writes:
>From: Richard <richard_snook@primus.com.au>
>Subject: Lease Fleets
>Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 07:16:07 +1100

>With the encroaching, if not already effective, power shortage to occur; that is
>the growing unavaialbility of good
>medium (3000) sized diesels would it not be an idea for maybe Clyde (or someone)
>to grab the L's refurboh them to say
>dash 3 or whatever is more current state and have them as a general lease fleet
>such as GM did stateside some years back
>(GE too). I take it this is essesntially what Chicago leasing have done with the
>ELs (but they didnt need "work")
>This would provide good reliable affordable power to anyother startups  (or
>specialised train movers) as well as proving
>existing players with a pool of locos toexpand their markets. You dont get the
>loco wars with this either, that is one
>Railway not leasing to another..to stifle them.

>On this subject, might it not be time for a TTX like viewpoint to a general
>rolling stock leasing operation to
>circumvent silly situations like NRC having nice modern container wel cars
>sitting idle while trucks ply the roads

>If Ls and C's are sufficiently "family" might they not make a good adddition to
>the rebuilding program??

>If not that might not GM or Gononans take the ultimate proactive stance and
>build a group of say something akin to the
>82 class but in a more standardised feature offering as alease fleet.
>Many operators might be shy of the capital outlay, but jump at grabbing a small
>fleet on lease for "whatever" period. Im
>sure the Big guys (Clyde and Gons) wouldnyt be at risk witha number of new
>locos...unless they are happy just to sit
>back and whinge?

>>:~)) Richard


Leasing locos is a good idea , but a bit risky for a loco manufacturer 
especially in Australia where the market is very small.
Whilst there is a loco shortage , its a contrived one , there arnt enuf locos 
simply because a couple of rail systems have a lot of locos in storage and 
wont let anyone else use them.
A loco manufacturer would be gambling somewhat to build new or rebuild 
existing locos into a fleet for lease without a pretty firm idea of who would 
want them and for how long.
The other risk is that the whole operation could come unstuck simply by a 
change of policy within the existing operators with the stored locos , by 
simply releasing them all into the market.
We havnt as yet seen any major take of CFCLAs ELs yet, which surprises me .
If there really is a loco shortage , you would think that the whole fleet 
would be leased out by now.

MD