Re: [QLD] Kuranda SX sets (was: [QLD] The last SX tin sets)

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Bill Bolton wrote:

> Did you entirely miss the specifier "most people who holiday in
> Cairns"?

Ok then, according to you most people who holiday in cairns never use a suburban
train.

> That's a fairly serious comprehension problem you have there.  No, I
> didn't say that.

Ok then, I made a very small mistake, I'll rephrase it. So you are saying that
everyone in the world who visits Cairns, apart from railfans hardly ever use a
train? A small mistake is not a serious comprehension problem. Do you actually
work or know someone in the Cairns tourist industry? or did you just ask a few
bus drivers and tour guides. Bus drivers and tour guides to not interrogate
people on whether they have been in trains before. I know I wasn't when I was up
there earlier this year.

> Perhaps its depends on the time of the year but the tourist operators
> were of the strong opinion that the majority of tourist traffic ineth
> area was from outside Australia.

Who were these tourist operators? When Australian's holiday in Cairns it is
during the winter months because it is a lot warmer up there. I know plenty of
people who have gone to Cairns.

> I asked people whose business depends on knowning that sort of thing.

Do people in the business even ask the question of what type of carriage they
would prefer? If you don't ask a question you can't get an answer. Anyway, I am
not saying that it will ruin the entire trip. I would still go up that line in a
tin set. All I am saying is that it will take a bit of the interest and
difference out of the trip.

> There are several "other famous tourist trains", at least one of which
> is actually using an SX set with obvious success.

Is this the Zig Zag? I heard that they purchased a SX set. Until recently they
have used wooden bodied carriages so only time will tell if these cars are as
popular as the wooden bodied Evans cars.

> Why then is someone spending a great deal of private eneterprise money
> already to prepeare an SX set for just that purpose.  Has it occured
> to you that they may just know something that you don't.

Has it occurred to you that they may be making an error? What about the
Melbourne Limited and Southern Cross Express failures in Victoria. They thought
they knew what they were doing but they didn't succeed. There are a number of
problems with the proposal to run a South African loco up that line. It is
basically just a train ride in competition with the QR operation. The only thing
different it will have to offer is the steam locomotive. There is absolutely no
heritage value or anything else of interest to attract passengers that are after
more than just a steam train ride. It will probably be more expensive than the
current QR diesel hauled service and I heard that it has been given an 0840 path
out of Cairns. This isn't exactly the most ideal time for the average tourist.
While the steam will undoubtedly be an attraction it remains to be seen whether
the service is commercially viable. Just about every steam hauled tourist
operation in Australia is operating just on break even point, and this is with a
lot of volunteer labour. The WCR service to Warrnambool combines steam with a
normal passenger service so it has a better chance of making a profit than just
a tourist train.


--
- James Brook -

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