its a dig at our friend JeffMike, I suspect it was a dig at a certain political group who are fond of asserting the free market will solve all the world's problems, then Dan 707 added his opinion of that claim.It is absolutely unnecessary to SHOUT your reply...particularly a reply that is difficult to understand.THE UNHINGED POWER OF THE FREE MARKET WILL SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS. MAH PRIVATISATION AND CUTSI have wanted to know where does the Vinelander go to? I saw carriages of the Vinelander at Steamrail's Newport workshops on the open days.It travelled to Mildura; its service was withdrawn on September 12 1993.
As a Mildura local, this annoys me that we in Mildura have no trains.
Additional info, It included motorail and sleeper facilities and ran 2 times a week. Journey time was close to 10 hours.
Nice one, Jeff (the premier who withdrew a bunch of train services because he has no brain)
M.
What are the criteria for 'deserves'? Population? Economic output of the catchment area? Competition for influence from another state capital? A big dot or bold font on a map?
So you are trying to strength your argument for the Vinelander to return by comparing NSW with SA in regards to regional rail?
You could have thought of...embarrassment
One of Victoria's premium tourist destinations as is evidenced by three airlines flying there daily, QANTAS, Virgin & Rex and Sunraysia being the only regional centre of Victoria in the only state in Australia which boasts frequent regional passenger trains to almost all important centres across the state... soon to be further modernised and the frequencies of those services further increased...except for Mildura and the north west.
It's no wonder the National party lost the seat to an Independent last year.
The airlines should not have to be seen by the general public as the only public transport provider at a cost way in excess of V/Line's fares.
I can forgive our SA and NSW friends their ignorance as they enjoy no regional rail service, or at the very best a scant regional PT service.
Mike.
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.Or for the forum to impose a breath test and maximum BAC reading before posting.
This topic is threatening to run for longer than Home and Away or Blue Hills. Both of them got nowhere as well.It's already like watching the exact same episode on repeat.
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.
Seriously, you want to talk about running trains to Hillston?
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.
Before making such a broad-brushed unilaterally silly comment...tell me about the public transport options between say...Hillston and Griffith.
If NSW is not offering the sub-standard PT that I suggest that it may, then the Hillston to Griffith bus will be a prime example of connectivity between that town and its nearest centre of commerce and for people beyond driving age or who choose not to drive to travel to their closest regional centre for shopping, medical appointments etc.
BTW, Hillston, pop 1,465 to Griffith, pop 18,900 is 110Km.
Over to you Shane...
Mike.
Maybe it was a strong comment by RTT Rules, but quoting a rural service as an example of Victoria having better PT than NSW does you no favours at all.
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.
Before making such a broad-brushed unilaterally silly comment...tell me about the public transport options between say...Hillston and Griffith.
If NSW is not offering the sub-standard PT that I suggest that it may, then the Hillston to Griffith bus will be a prime example of connectivity between that town and its nearest centre of commerce and for people beyond driving age or who choose not to drive to travel to their closest regional centre for shopping, medical appointments etc.
BTW, Hillston, pop 1,465 to Griffith, pop 18,900 is 110Km.
Over to you Shane...
Mike.
It's no wonder the National party lost the seat to an Independent last year.
The airlines should not have to be seen by the general public as the only public transport provider at a cost way in excess of V/Line's fares.
I can forgive our SA and NSW friends their ignorance as they enjoy no regional rail service, or at the very best a scant regional PT service.
Not everywhere can have trains again - even though the near-Melbourne destinations within two hours have been well patronised you can't apply that model to all corners of the state, it'll just be a colossal waste of money at time when the VIC government is cutting programs and services.
Another Mike,
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.
Before making such a broad-brushed unilaterally silly comment...tell me about the public transport options between say...Hillston and Griffith.
If NSW is not offering the sub-standard PT that I suggest that it may, then the Hillston to Griffith bus will be a prime example of connectivity between that town and its nearest centre of commerce and for people beyond driving age or who choose not to drive to travel to their closest regional centre for shopping, medical appointments etc.
BTW, Hillston, pop 1,465 to Griffith, pop 18,900 is 110Km.
Over to you Shane...
Mike.
... NO government services or programs have actually been cut...Wow, and all they had to do was DOUBLE Victoria's state debt.
Stating NSW as being substandard compared to Vic is reason enough to have you committed.
Before making such a broad-brushed unilaterally silly comment...tell me about the public transport options between say...Hillston and Griffith.
If NSW is not offering the sub-standard PT that I suggest that it may, then the Hillston to Griffith bus will be a prime example of connectivity between that town and its nearest centre of commerce and for people beyond driving age or who choose not to drive to travel to their closest regional centre for shopping, medical appointments etc.
BTW, Hillston, pop 1,465 to Griffith, pop 18,900 is 110Km.
Over to you Shane...
Mike.Another Mike,
I did discuss both rail and bus, but as I had no idea where the Hillston thing came from or why you mentioned it I assumed rail being the first point your were loosely trying to make and hence I discuss the Bus issues 2nd.
While on Hillston, its in the seat of Murry, a seat nearly half the size of Victoria with just on 100,000 population and for some reason what ever bus service is available, its not good enough for you. As I said before, its very easy to run a bus network on a radial network from the capital city, especially when the starting point has a reasonable population base to help underwrite demand. Hilston is further from Sydney than Mildura is from Mel.
Most of NEW regional trains if overlaid in Vic would exit the state (twice over) and have more stops than a number of your rail services combined.
As I said before, when you live in a remote area with a very low population with no family support, you need to make smart decisions before you loose your transport options.
Referring to my comment on being "committed", yes it was a loose joke, sorry you couldn't see it that way but your comments following are not helping your case.
And as you want to again throw politics into the mix, NSW may currently be a LNP state, but it had 10 years of ALP govt from 1978 and 11 years from 2000. Much of its rail today is driven by decisions made during the 21 years of its ALP governance including
- Cancellation of the Murwullibah XPT, the most popular regional rail service in NSW at the time
- Truncation of Northern Tablelands from Tenterfield to Glenn Innes to Armidale with the famous quote, "I'm not running a $10M train for one old lady" If the lady in question wasn't a LNP voter before, she probably was after
- Failure to build almost anything rail that wasn't contracted before Carr came to power, but famously announcing alot.
Regarding you comment for improvements to the Bendigo Line.
- Harcourt station was previously closed by the Kaine ALP govt.
- Bendigo is a small DMU service in Vic, roughly the same distance as the 8 car DD sparks that service Kiama, Broadmeadow and Lithgow
You comment also states that there is no need for returning the Mildura rail service as the NW is "well served by fixed rail".
If you want to continue this NSW vs Vic debate, the balls in your court but before replying
Note this, by the time the NSW govt faces its next election.
- It will have built more Greenfield suburban rail than all the Vic ALP govts and LNP's combined since WW2.
- It will have built more Greendfield light rail trackage than the Vic ALP and LNP govts combined since WW2.
- and critically the state will still be basically net debt free unlike the Soviet Socialist Republic of Vic which is yet again proving former PM M.Thatcher's famous statement correct that left'ist govts repeatedly fail to live within their means and potentially leaving the state open to another Kennett style Austerity exercise at the expense of the next generation. But of course this will be blamed of typical LNP vision-less politics.
In the main and objectively, NSW PT is better than ours. Only someone that is one eyed would say otherwise. Their Metro service is far more extensive than ours, their Interurban operations are electrically hauled and NSW plan better than we do down South. You like to go on about V/Line. V/Line is still crap. Hampered by the piecemeal approach to rolling stock renewal. In particular the introduction of Vlocities does not cover this state in glory.
Why oh why didnt the Bracks Government order enough Vlocities to replace old stock. Instead they ordered the bare minimum and decided to refurbish H-Type carriages, converted EMU stock from the 1950/60's. As a result, we are still operating peak services with old 1950's tin-worm riddled H Type carriages hauled by 1980's vintage locos. Those life-expired old pieces of junk should have been scrapped and made into dog food tins long ago. V/Line could and should have had a modern DMU fleet by now. Instead we are left with a mismatch of Modern DMU's, Older DMU's and old locos and carriages, with all the cost and operational penalties associated with running such a fleet. 70 x 3 car trains has been produced since 2004. 15 years for 70 trains. Over 20% of V/line's rolling stock are carriages that are over 60 years old. NSW on the other hand commit to large orders with the view of replacing old stock.
Premier Andrews is to be commended for his efforts in revitalising PT in Victoria. In reality we are lagging behind NSW.
Michael
We've disabled Quick Reply for this thread as it was last updated more than six months ago.