Re: Alice Springs to Darwin line, but wait, there is more.!

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

In article <37fb5359.137992101@news.ocean.com.au> pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown) writes:
>From: pcc@ocean.com.au (Les Brown)
>Subject: Re: Alice Springs to Darwin line, but wait, there is more.!
>Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 13:50:16 GMT

>mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) wrote in aus.rail:
>>
>>Why , we have a railway line between Melb and Sydney, and 80% of all the land 
>>based freight goes by road , not rail.
>>Simply having a railway line between two places is no guarantee that anyone 
>>will use it in preferance to road.
>>
>Is this comparison valid?

>Surely a better comparison in terms of distance, country traversed,
>fuel costs, etc., would be Adelaide - Perth? I seem to recall freight
>movement between these two cities to be at least 70% by rail. 

>Whatever the percentage, you can't use Melbourne-Sydney as a bench
>mark for rail utilisation around the country.

>Les Brown

Why not , simply because it gives the answer we dont want to hear.?
OK lets take Sydney - Brisbane , Sydney - Adelaide , Adelaide - Alice Springs,
in every case the road industry is ahead of rail , by varying degrees and 
will get further ahead as more B doubles and B triples hit the roads.
B doubles are currently achieving freight rates of 3.5 c/ntk for door to door 
delivery,whilst the best Rail can achieve is 2.5 c/ntk for terminal to 
terminal delivery and only NRC is achieving this.
Given the double handling that is required to get rail freight from the 
Terminal to the final customer the 1 c differance isnt enough in rails 
favor.
Whatever you may think of the Road freight industry it is efficient and 
highly competitive, and most importantly isnt saddled with a plethora of 
stupid rules and regulations to comply with as is the rail industry.
Adelaide - Perth is the only rail corridor in Australia 
where rail wins over road in the contestable freight market.
Part of this is for historical reasons in that the Rail line was there much 
earlier than was the sealed road , the loading is highly assymetric , in that 
most of it goes east -west with very little loading coming back, and the road 
freight industry isnt that interested in the corridor due to the difficulty of 
getting return loads.
In addition AN when it existed ran a very lean mean competitive transport 
operation.
NRC are trying to do the same , with both hands tied behind their 
backs.
If the Rail industry was able , and allowed to operate in the same 
operational and regulatory regime as is road transport, then it could be 
efficient and low cost, but it isnt now and isnt likely ever to be whilst 
State Govts are involved.



MD