Re: QR going national?

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

>> Hopefully they could compete with the Brisbane-Sydney XPT ... use a set
>> similar to the "Queenslander" ...
>
>I was under the impression that this has been on the cards for a while.
>
I would be a tad surprised. The real money in rail is in freight as has been
pointed out here time and time again. Whilst I'm not saying passenger trains
will never make a profit, compared to freight it is but a sideline nowadays.
The only reason a Sydney Brisbane Queenslander style train would run would
be purely to raise public awareness. And I daresay given others in NSW
comments about RAC, QR probably isn't going to get rock bottom access fees
either.

Hence we can probably expect to see QR freight trains (Hunter Valley? Or
maybe in competition to FC and NRC on the Sydney Brisbane container trains)
but unlikely to see in the near future QR passenger trains in the near
future. (Maybe a tilt train later would be a good move though, sure as hell
would take all the good traffic from Countrylink! Who would ride 13 hours in
an XPT when they can save an hour or so on a tilt train...)

Actually just out of interest, how much time would a tilt train save going
Sydney Brisbane, especially if they cut out most of the stops in between?
And would it be worth their while not to stop outside of Sydney Brisbane and
maybe a few selected Central Coast stations? Just curious...