I agree wholeheartedly with you Everald. The volume of trucks on our highways is a very expensive nightmare. Successive governments have failed us by not investing in efficient transport infrastructure.

One of the reasons rail has not progressed is the power of the unions in the rail sector. Many attempts by various governments over the years to make any rail system more efficient have been thwarted by union belligerence and thuggery.

The unions that are the millstone around the neck of efficiency and progress in this country. We are unlikely to see much of your vision until some of their power is reigned in.

Good article, but come on Sparkyq get your hand off it. The fact that it took over 100 years to get a Adeliade to Darwin rail link was down to unions was it?
Is it Unions stopping a link up of the narrow guage track in South Australia....no it isn't is it.
Is it unions not investing in track control tech to move away from sector control practices.... no.

Do a little thinking before you type Liberal party/2GB/Murdoc talking points

I still firmly believe that a Mono Rail would be the best solution all round in Australia. No embankments, no bridges, no crossings, minimal environmental impact, no flood damage, etc etc.
What could possibly be a negative re a Mono Rail ?

Individual,

What do you mean by a monorail?
An elevated misnamed "monorail" such as we had in Sydney?

There are a variety of monorail designs, many of which are not monorails at all.

Imagine, if you can, a monorail freight yard, the mind boggles.

It just won't work Everald, the cost of transshipment at each end make rail impractical.

Here is one of the areas your unions have destroyed rails viability. I had a tractor shipped from MacKay to Howard by rail. I have no idea how they got it onto a rail flatbed, but getting it off was a comedy of large proportions.

I once rode a train from Marlborough to Rockhampton in my one ton ute when the roads flooded. They ran a few trains to get the backlog of cars through.

When we got to Rockhampton they pilled 5 sleepers beside the flatbed, & we drove off onto the passenger platform, no problem.

I suggested to the Howard rail people I would do this with the tractor. Hell, I didn't even need sleepers for it. No way, they saw a chance to waste time.

They brought some shunting thing from Maryborough, split the train, & shunted things about for an hour to get the car the tractor was on, out onto a siding. They spent another hour getting the thing to the end of a loading ramp. Another hour so was used up putting some ramps from the end of the car, the 4 feet to the ramp. After 5 hours, with 4 men, + a shunting crew, I had my tractor.

I can't remember what the freight bill was, but I'm sure it was less than the labour used to unload the thing.

Oh & Cobber, it was unions that forced the steam workshop at Chullora, Sydney to stay fully manned, costing millions a year, for 20 years after steam was no longer used.

I don't like the roads full of trucks, but rail is never going to be the answer for anything except extremely long distance freight. Even there it would require something like container ports to be viable.

Imagine, if you can, a monorail freight yard, the mind boggles.
is Mise,
yes, the mind boggles indeed if your imagination is that limited !.