Yes on the face of it rail seems to be pointless in Australia but that is largely because we forget the reason for introducing a national railway network in the first place - it was primarily designed to move freight with a passenger service as an unintended by product.
The commercial benefits of rail are the following:
- assist in decentralising by creating a national network of communities that make their living from rail (much as happened in NSW and Victoria in the 19th century)
-rural hubs would act as distribution points for freight - meaning that we would be taking the heavy long haul lorries of the road and reduce our reliance on road transport.
-It is more efficient to move people from urban centre to urban centre as can be achieved with rail.
-Electrified high speed rail can be serviced using a mix of solar, wind and back-up battery power resulting the decentralisation of electricity.

As a nation we need to be far more imaginative and aim for self sufficiency wherever we can. If we rely on importing fuel and technology we will will basically lose control of shaping our own destiny.

Rail freight will only work properly if we can get control of the unions. Demarcation disputes & rip off systems often make rail unviable.

During one of the droughts a local brought a couple of train loads of hay into Howard from Mundubbera. A dozen or more railcars were parked in the goods area, & locals backed their trucks up to the car doors, & unloaded direct to the trucks. It was easy & simple.

After the second train the unions got on the case. They demanded a shunting engine & crew to move the cars, & union labour to unload them. This would have doubled the cost per bale, so he went back to B double loads.

A mate set up an oil transhipment system to get the stuff from farm to Sydney docks. He leased a silo, & used axial flow fans to suck the stuff from farm trucks & blow it into the silo, then from silo to rail car. Again into the second season, the rail union demanded a crew of 4 rail workers be employed full time for a couple of days work a week for 5 months.

The oilseed went back to road transport. It is this sort of stupidity than makes much possible rail transport not viable. It will never come back if unions don't wise up & help make it competitive.

Struth, Hasbeen, you seem to be stuck in the 1980s!

The days when Australian railways were controlled by unions are long gone. The main thing needed to get the cost down now is to get a large enough loading gauge for double stacked stacked containers in the eastern states.

The air hostess union may ban it, but Green passengers could get ticket specials if they pedal foot pumps. These direct plane exhaust gas to the underseat pipes for gold catalyst electrical refining, powered from wing solar panels. Fuel recycles, reducing weight drag and curing obesity. ( 5 minute coffee break every hour to London).

nicknamenick, you may think you're funny, but you're nothing other than tiresome.

no no the topic is electrical recycling of carbon.
Please get back on track.