Hasbeen: << one other thing, most public transport uses more fuel per passenger mile than private cars. Public transport is only viable in the minds of the Green converted. >>

I don't suppose you'd like to provide some evidence for that assertion?

Also, I took your tale about the lack of a convenient air shuttle service from the Whitsundays to be some kind of plea that such a service should exist, even though there clearly isn't sufficient demand to make it economically viable - in which case it would.

You seem a tad confused, old chap.

..there clearly isn't sufficient demand to make it economically viable - in which case it would.
CJ Morgan,
I find myself in a very similar situation as Hasbeen on a regular basis. On the northern Qantaslink runs you get exactly as Hasbeen describes it. One of the major reasons is the very high booking by Public Servants who of course couldn't give a hoot about private enterprise having great difficulty because of all the utterly unnecessary travel at taxpayers expense. The Public Service does not question the 4 times above average airfare costs it just pays it. Would a 43 blln Dollar NBN free up much needed seats because Public Servants would not have as many excuses to fly around as if there was no tomorrow ? I doubt it very much. They'd soon say that the NBN is not sufficient enough a communication system & despite Tele conferencing etc they'd still travel because they wouldn't get travel allowances for teleconferencing. It's not super expensive technology that's needed it's less academic bureaucrats maggotting in the Public Service that needs addressing.

CJ. it was a Monash study I read a while back. I must admit I was quite surprised that a place like Monash would not have buried that one. They also quoted a similar study from the UK in their paper.

What I was trying to get across with my travel problem was in the last sentence, where I suggest that busy people don't have time to sit on trains.

We know that academics, & public servants have all the time in the world, & would probably prefer the slow boat, as a transport medium. However, those who have to justify their existence, & that of more than a few employees, by making profits, do not have the luxury of wasting time sitting on a train.

They can not even allow unsuitable timetables to cause them to waste time. The fact that the airline schedules were arranged to suit the main traffic, tourists in that area, was fully understandable, just inconvenient.

The whole NBN project has all the trappings of a political razz ma tazz look at me show.

have just had my internet speed increased from 1.2 Mbits to 10 Mbits
and the difference is not noticeable in almost all cases.
What politicians don't realise is that in a packet system because
the achieved speed is limited by the remote computer all that happens
is that packets arrive quicker but the gap between packets gets longer.

I just cannot see how faster internet is going to be a boost to
country towns economy. So what if some data arrives 1 msec
quicker.
It has been suggested that LTE which is a wireless (read radio)
technique, would be better in the regions and a lot cheaper.

There is another system, Wimax, which may be even better as
the protocol it uses allows for much higher transmit powers and does
not have the built in distance limitations of mobile phone systems.
My understanding is that given high base station locations and high
gain yagi antennae at the users location ranges up to 50KM would be
relatively easy. I can think of locations such as Mt Canobolas that
could give ranges out to 100 Kms.
Nairbe;
We have a much bigger need that roads, we need to get the mainline
railways electrified and branch lines reopened. Long distance road
transport will end together with significant air travel inside 10 years.
They could be extended longer but the politicians are not listening
so transport will face a crisis much sooner than many expect.

We face a crisis in funding for infrastructure due to the financial
crisis that started in 2007 and we have exchanged our savings for massive debt.
Credit is tight and probably will get tighter. Forget your highway
improvement. Have a look at what has happened in the US.
They are tearing up the tar roads and putting them back to gravel.
How long before that starts happening here ? Councils are already
bleating about loss of funds. Do you really think they will worry
about the internet in those circumstances ?

The National Broadband Network is only one of the necessary drivers for decentralisation. The use of Canberra as an illustration is instructive. Canberra is itself becoming a centralised city even though it was designed to have satellite towns. Unfortunately the dynamics of capitalizing of real estate leads inevitably to centralisation. As soon as the owners of land can capitalise and sell future value of the land there is an immediate push to centralisation and to push costs onto those who have to use the city in the future. In other words a central business district with high rents and high buildings enables the owners of land to capitalise the future rents without having to bear the future costs of congestion and getting too and from the city,

If we stopped selling land and only rented land, where the rent on land goes to the provision of infrastructure, then I predict we would reverse the trend to centralisation and I cite Canberra as the example. In the early years of Canberra land was rented and Canberra developed town centres outside the central area. Unfortunately the system was changed so that land value can now be capitalised (even though the land is still leased). As soon as this happened then the town centre concept was corrupted so that Canberra has become a centralised city like any other with new towns deliberately being turned into dormitory suburbs. Land is not released for employment outside the central area because the government, as the controller of land, releases land where they can get the greatest immediate capital gain. This means business in the central area and housing in the outer areas. This gives the government the maximum capital gain and pushes the cost into the future and onto future suburban dwellers.

People want to live near where they work and it is less costly to operate cities where this happens than it costs to operate a centralised city. The same applies to a country. Stop the capitalisation of land and spend land rent on infrastructure and we would get decentralisation and lower costs.

CJ Morgan;
I think you may be right that public transport, heavy rail in
particular uses more fuel in off peak times. However over a whole day
I think not. Look at a peak hour train, how much fuel would be used
by all those passengers in their own cars against the electricity to
move a crowded train.

Hasbeen commented on not having time to sit on a train, you have to be kidding.
The train is a lot faster that driving a car.
They can not even allow unsuitable timetables to cause them to waste time.
Anyway as London Transport said;
If you need a timetable, the service is not good enough.