Bazz the trouble with building power plants at coal mines is water. I know the story, a mate of mine was the human resources manager at cap coal supplying Tarong.

It becomes a real problem. Beattie was very lucky he was not in France, when he pinched the water from Boonah's irrigation dam for Swanbank. The French farmers would have burnt his parliament down.

It does make more sense to sight power generation like Gladstone, where the pacific ocean is available, & carry the coal.

Yes the oil business is less profitable, so now needs better management than they got away with previously, but I'd still like to own an oil well.

I think a high speed revamp of education & mentality would be more desireable. Australia would need to import people to operate such a train for both cost & maintenance. Is speed really such an important factor now rather than just simple efficiency ? I can just imagine a big Red hopping into the path of a 430km/h train.

Hasbeen, I had not thought that water would a limiting factor.
Do they use condensers ? Losses in that have to be topped up.
Can they use salt water ? I would have thought with the heat that
corrosion would have been an unsurmountable problem.

Anyway these are surmountable problems and the best way will be found.
That the railway needs a major refurbishment is a fundamental for the
new economy into which we have to migrate. It is not however just a
problem of main line freight but many branch lines will be needed to
be either built or reestablished.
I gather that there has been a move to road freight of harvests with
the rail line lying unused alongside. An article I read was that the
farmers were angry at the move. If I remember it was in WA.
We have all the line side infrastructure in place, silos etc so cost
would be minimal.

To get back to the subject, if the government cannot find the money
to ensure our food supply, what chance for the VFT ?
Who needs the VFT anyway ?
If is family visiting a day on the train is neither here or there.
If it is a large business meeting, use the Telstra video suite.
Use Skype for many meetings.
Anyway, you will not have the choice.

Bazz, they use the salt water to cool the fresh.

They use large volumes to avoid making the discharge of this water too hot. At Gladstone there is a channel taking the warm salt water away, & I am told it is a good fishing spot, with local type fish, but also a range of interesting fish that like the warm water, & are not usually found in the area.

These places require huge volumes of water, if only to supply the steam the greenies, & our ABC love to pretend is smoke in all their videos of cooling towers.

I'd like to comment in response to Ludwig's Post.

You're position is that we should invest our [limited] money on 'Basic" quality of life things. Our position is that money should also go toward things other than just the basics. We should invest in projects which inspire us and make a statement as to what a progressive nation we are on the world stage. If we just stuck to spending money on the basic things then we'd be hosting the likes of Pavarotti in a town hall instead of a world class Opera House.

Not meaning to give offence but I believe Australia needs to look to the future with a Can Do attitude which puts us amongst the top nations in the world. I was taught at Uni that you can only save so much but your earning capacity is unlimited. I believe Australia needs to not look at how hard something is or how much it costs but more, how can we expand our capacity to afford and achieve the great things we desire. https://www.facebook.com/VisionForAustralia

Not meaning to give offence but I believe Australia needs....
Vision for Australia,
.....less people who do what they do now, wanting ever more for as little as possible.
Australia needs people who are Australian not Australians who want Australia to mollycoddle them from cradle to grave.
Some real patriotism is needed not the pseudo patriotism that has been on display for some years now. No good saying I love Australia but if a foreigner offers me good money I'll sell it.