Re: New Airline and Speedrail??

[Richard <richard_snook@primus.com.au>]

The Virgin Rail tie-inhad not escaped me, but I am unsure as to those routes that Virgin plies(UK). Are these serviced
by air as well (not necessarily by him)..i.e. are these routes which have air-competition?
I cant help but feel that a 25-30% uptake would cripple the logistics of Speedrail- Melb/Syd. Sure there are predictions
of massive upswings of domestic travel anyway..but ....people are used togoing these routes by air these days..the
purveyors of air-seats dont have to convert peoples preferences...speed rail has to educate its potential markets.

I have an uneasy feeling about this...and the first sod for Sydney-Canberra hasnt even been turned yet!!
As there is no real strength to the national rail lobby groups, Icant but feel that this Virgin invasion may well result
in the up and coming rebirth of national rail travel resulting in a still-birth....just being realistic here.
Granted that there are more and better spin-offs for rural infrastructure by the creation of rail services...but then
when does canberra really care much for other than itself!!

cheers >:~)) Richard

Matthew Geier wrote:
> 
> In article <3841B858.1EA9F849@primus.com.au>,
> Richard  <richard_snook@primus.com.au> wrote:
> >I wonder what effect this new startup by Branson will have on the viability of the Melb_Sydney extension of Speedrail??
> >
> >Anyonwe have some factual insight!!
> 
>  Virgin owns railway operating companies as well. They are as likely to buy into SpeedRail
> and intergrate it into their airline operations as compete against it!
> 
>  Of course it will come down to how much slots cost as Sydney and Melbourne airports and
> how much traffic the rest of the network generates as appossed to Melbourne-Sydney.
> 
>  Any one have figures on how large a segment of the market Sydney-Melbourne is as apposed to
> every other route ?