Re: QR going national?

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

>But QR does make a profit out of its coastal passenger services and the
>Kuranda train. I think the Gulflander also makes an operating profit if
>you ignore the cost of maintaining the isolated track.
>
Serious money or 'just makes a small profit if you don't include wages, cost
of maintenance of right of way or the fuel costs' type accounting that seems
to be popular at times.

Or in other words is it more worth QRs while to run a coal train or a
passenger train in terms of profit (ie revenue minus cost)?

To get back to the original point, would QR find it more profitable to spend
money refurbishing and running a standard (ie not GSPE) loco hauled train
from Brisbane to Sydney or running a freight train of some kind. Or even
leaving the destinations out of the picture, where would QR be best
investing money to make profit? Would it be in trying to compete with FC on
the Hunter Valley coal or Countrylink on Sydney-Brisbane passengers (or even
Brisbane to Melbourne, I'm sure enough journeys are made along this corridor
to dedicate some trains if they wanted to run a niche pass train)? Whilst FC
would be a far more vicious competitor than CL, I suspect that when the
winner takes it all and the losers standing small, the better profit would
be in freight.