Is Mise,
That would depend on the assumptions those studies used.
Most of Australia's railways were built under the assumption that the rural population would be a lot higher than it turned out to be in reality.

.... than it turned out to be in reality.
Aidan,
You have to think future get it ? Future, not now ! There won't be a more reliable form of transport than rail in the next decades. Mono rail would be even better as it would free up much needed parking space & other land as I mentioned earlier.
Again, think future !

individual,
I do think future, hence my debunking of a couple of Brendan's more obvious mistakes.

That doesn't mean I should ignore the past.

.. while those of us who live pay rates, work here, get treated as an inconvenience ...
Alison Jane,
I have experienced very similar where I grew up. I went back over 30 years later & found that not be so anymore, the locals have become aware that mere hyping up the place is not enough, you have to back up the hype with fact & then the rewards come into play.
Look at NZ for example. They promote it as an adventure destination. Guess what ! It is !
Look at the advertising in Australia & tell us what you find. Take your time.

Alison Jane,
When you find what's really happening start counting the "prohibited" signs, most of which point to anything to do with people trying to have fun !

Again, think future! individual. Yes mate think future. Bigger & better agricultural machinery equals even less people in the bush.

Bigger & better migration equals more basically unnecessary people flooding into the major cities.

Even higher wages for unskilled wages equals ever higher costs for trans shipping from truck to rail at source, & back to truck at the destination. Trans shipping costs higher than sending the stuff on a truck all the way.

In the US they ship fully loaded semi trailers on rail cars as it is cheaper than doing the trip on their own wheels. Here we pay such ridiculous wages for labor, it is just not viable to trans ship to rail, or load the whole truck.

With our costs rail is a dead loss for anything that is not bulk loaded & unloaded.

Here it is cheaper to fly interstate than go by train. Could that have something to do with government run rail, & private airlines?