I agree the track alignments need to be sorted as well as the benefit to freight will make a huge difference. Arglen is an interesting example because there is a road upgrade that straightened the new england highway right beside the rail line. Passenger trains could probably climb such a similar alignment / grade but there is no way a fully loaded coalie or grainey could. It would probably require a new tunnel to solve that alignment issue.

Fixing these alignments would help rail pull back its freight percentage and it could be done for significantly less then that expensive white elephant. Not much needs to be done to get rid of these old alignments like ardglen or along the main south and north coast lines.

Sims, have been pondering on your reply to Ethan and both your posts.

I can understand the aspect of not likin the use of the word Regionals, but that raises the question of how does one give some form of recognition to the larger areas outside each of the state capitals and moreso in NSW with the Sydney being the largest capital city in Oz?

Thing for me is that in many ways using the term seems to be a criticism of those areas/inland cities and the like especially when talking about PT services and in this case Rail to those areas. The term regions is a bit less an issue that calling some areas that identify with their ecology, eg Northern Tablelands & where does it cut in and out especially the towns and City of Armidale. Similarly, we have the Blue Mountains used as a generic title, same with the Illawarra, and Hunter areas, the Riverina is deemed a region, but many other areas are just part of the topography NW slopes and & Plains, Central tablelands and the list goes on.  As such a town/city outside what is called the Great Dividing Range needs to have something of a title that makes the large locations as places of value.

Who started the cheap import era in this country? A fellow who in recent years has been very vocal about overseas imports and loss of local jobs as well as industries, the very same fellow who was very much responsible for the flood of cheap Japanese electrical trick and other stuff, he had a bright spot on a Midday TV show where he showcased those items, he built a large company selling a lot of rubbish but developed with electrical goods, the stores were named after this fellow, DICK SMITH.  His stores no longer exist.

Australia has lost its way as far as being a lucky country, & while Ethan mentions the aspect that Aussies are to blame for the cheap imports and buying the, but that's been going on even before Dick Smith. This country produced the vast majority of our own needs, both household items, cars built here and the railways purchased rail from the PTK steel Works along with other places where we manufactured items here, the vast amount of farm machinery was also built here, petrol was refined in each state, now only Caltex has a single refinery in Brisbane, none in NSW and think the same in Vic & SA.  As Oz companies got bought out by overseas companies we basically have nothing great in the area of manufacturing, City or rural based, NSW rail track comes from Spain, and who in NSW builds Rolling Stock or builds locomotives, add that to other states, at least the one steel works that still makes steel in Whyalla is supplying the rails for the ILR.

We have to not just blame ourselves for this but also the corporate greed that has brought our country down from a producer & inventor of many common items that were Oz owned but now owned by overseas conglomerates, while most still have the brands available to buy, there is nothing more than some office tower where their business headquarters are and the boss & head office in the country that now owns these companies, with the heads getting the big coin and bonuses.

We will never get back to those days where we were a producing country and one that had local manufacturing, but we need to start pulling together to at least build/make the same items here at prices more than competitive with the stuff from o/seas.

Tourism is an industry that could benefit from faster rail services especially to many of the major locations, and regional areas, if the times were better than are had now. I don't especially believe anymore in regards to the HST concept but more the mid range faster trains but that means better grade and alignment separation/improvements. Trains that can run at 200Km/h on track that is fixed is not just for the rural areas, and certainly not for the commuter, but no reasons why if such systems were available and the passengers pay to commute or for holiday packages, no reason why rail could not be more of a competitive force.

I think you might have misread my comment, I don't exactly blame Aussie's for buying cheap imported goods (I shop at Kmart myself), many have no choice due to limited income, job insecurity, and high cost of living, and in other situations, there is no Australian option for certain products, like cars and electronics for example.
I blame corporate greed just like simstrain, and I blame the government, as they do a lot of the importing and that is out of the control of the everyday Australian, things like rails from Spain as you mentioned, and trains from China and Korea.


Regarding the use of the word 'regional', I understand what you mean about how it is used to identify certain areas such as the Northern Tablelands, but I dislike it because (at least in my opinion), it brings up imagery of open farmland and small country towns, and people speak as though there are two parts of NSW; Sydney being a city, and the rest regional,

not seeming to realise that you can travel just 80km's south of Sydney, and find a place a 200K population, home to a stadium, educational facilities, a significant industrial area, a significant retail centre, and an amusement park, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?
you can also travel 160km's north of Sydney, and find a place with a 400K population, home to an even larger stadium, larger educational facilities, another significant industrial area, multiple significant retail centres with international retailers, and an international airport, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?

Unfortunately the government seems to have the same mindset, meaning we see infrastructure development and employment generate in Sydney and nowhere else, and while it makes sense that the bulk of infrastructure and amenities investments are concentrated in Sydney, they should not ONLY be in Sydney because no one can afford to live there.

Youth unemployment is soaring in Australia, particular outside of Sydney, and families, especially single parents and single income familes simply can not afford to live in Sydney, especially in a suburb with proper access to public transport (park and ride does not count),
but if they live outside of Sydney in extreme car dependence, they can't afford to buy their children a car and pay the exorbitant insurance premiums either, and no employer in these areas will hire someone who doesn't own a car, and paying all the car-related expenses on the $240/week JobSeeker payment is certainly not an option, so as a result, we see youth unemployment soaring, especially in the only places familes can afford to live, meaning Australia not looking good for future generations,
and lastly, and most relevantly, commuting is not an option because, as I mentioned before, most job applications today are filtered through software packages, just a simple negative answer such as an address outside an hour's commute time could see an application rejected, and high-speed rail WON'T change this.


Regarding what you said about faster rail benefiting things like tourism, I absolutely agree, but as long as the price is right, I think a 7 hour rail journey could be competitive with an hour long flight if the price was right, ideally half that of flying and remaining consistent (as opposed to the dynamic price fluctuations in the airline industry).
Especially with the airline industry facing an uncertain future thanks to Covid-19, if Qantas was the only airline in Australia (which is thankfully looking less likely than when I first said this), that would be the end of domestic air travel for the average Australian.

I think you might have misread my comment, I don't exactly blame Aussie's for buying cheap imported goods (I shop at Kmart myself), many have no choice due to limited income, job insecurity, and high cost of living, and in other situations, there is no Australian option for certain products, like cars and electronics for example.

I blame corporate greed just like simstrain, and I blame the government, as they do a lot of the importing and that is out of the control of the everyday Australian, things like rails from Spain as you mentioned, and trains from China and Korea.


Regarding the use of the word 'regional', I understand what you mean about how it is used to identify certain areas such as the Northern Tablelands, but I dislike it because (at least in my opinion), it brings up imagery of open farmland and small country towns, and people speak as though there are two parts of NSW; Sydney being a city, and the rest regional,

not seeming to realise that you can travel just 80km's south of Sydney, and find a place a 200K population, home to a stadium, educational facilities, a significant industrial area, a significant retail centre, and an amusement park, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?
you can also travel 160km's north of Sydney, and find a place with a 400K population, home to an even larger stadium, larger educational facilities, another significant industrial area, multiple significant retail centres with international retailers, and an international airport, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?

Unfortunately the government seems to have the same mindset, meaning we see infrastructure development and employment generate in Sydney and nowhere else, and while it makes sense that the bulk of infrastructure and amenities investments are concentrated in Sydney, they should not ONLY be in Sydney because no one can afford to live there.

Youth unemployment is soaring in Australia, particular outside of Sydney, and families, especially single parents and single income familes simply can not afford to live in Sydney, especially in a suburb with proper access to public transport (park and ride does not count),
but if they live outside of Sydney in extreme car dependence, they can't afford to buy their children a car and pay the exorbitant insurance premiums either, and no employer in these areas will hire someone who doesn't own a car, and paying all the car-related expenses on the $240/week JobSeeker payment is certainly not an option, so as a result, we see youth unemployment soaring, especially in the only places familes can afford to live, meaning Australia not looking good for future generations,
and lastly, and most relevantly, commuting is not an option because, as I mentioned before, most job applications today are filtered through software packages, just a simple negative answer such as an address outside an hour's commute time could see an application rejected, and high-speed rail WON'T change this.


Regarding what you said about faster rail benefiting things like tourism, I absolutely agree, but as long as the price is right, I think a 7 hour rail journey could be competitive with an hour long flight if the price was right, ideally half that of flying and remaining consistent (as opposed to the dynamic price fluctuations in the airline industry).
Especially with the airline industry facing an uncertain future thanks to Covid-19, if Qantas was the only airline in Australia (which is thankfully looking less likely than when I first said this), that would be the end of domestic air travel for the average Australian.

Something to consider with the concept of distance and the like. The term regions or regional has come to fruition out the simple fact of the growth of both Sydney & the regional areas, interestingly we rarely hear of the term that used to describe the Sydney and its metropolitan areas when they were part of the SYDNEY BASIN.  In fact the problem is that the Sydney basin has spread to such a degree its more akin to a bath tub than a basin, many of those areas you mention 80K's and x population have been in existence for ages, also of note is how much of the Sydney basin was also called the food bowl for Sydney and suburbs, now over 95% is suburbs and full of block housing, those farmland aspects you mention were actually a big part of & in the Sydney basin.

When you blame corporations, also is a need to blame the governments over the years for divesting themselves of local purchasing, they blame the unions for demanding too much wage in the wage increases along with many other areas, but shrug off the idea of corporate and government pay increases when they hold the pen for the signatures and then tell all the workers no pay rises this year.

If job applications were considered on the basis of postcode or suburb name, I would suggest that would apply to more of a lot of the suburbs in Sydney also in regional towns/cities, where people there apply for jobs only to get the dole, they are so unreliable that employers wont look at them owing to their lack of commitment and please don't expect me to get my hands dirty, or the travel times to the city & I have to change trains to get to a job. It also happens in the regions, and a reason why some go to the regions to live as they get cheaper housing and usually find no jobs are available so they get the dole along bonuses owing to location of livening.  Not all are like that though.

An hour in a plane is better for the vast majority of people including tourists than 7 hours in a train, the train travel though can be more enjoyable for tourists as they sit in the train and look out to see the landscape, ok for one way travel and more usually on the outward trip.  Rail has advantages for tourism but also has its problems especially when the lines are pretty much early 20century alignments and times.

I agree the track alignments need to be sorted as well as the benefit to freight will make a huge difference. Arglen is an interesting example because there is a road upgrade that straightened the new england highway right beside the rail line. Passenger trains could probably climb such a similar alignment / grade but there is no way a fully loaded coalie or grainey could. It would probably require a new tunnel to solve that alignment issue.

Fixing these alignments would help rail pull back its freight percentage and it could be done for significantly less then that expensive white elephant. Not much needs to be done to get rid of these old alignments like ardglen or along the main south and north coast lines.

The New England Highway over the range is a huge improvement for the road industry in both directions but on the MDI side its a another step up.  For passenger services such as the XPT/XPL its not a huge concern but if the grade was around a 1:100 rather than 1:40, non compensated it would be much different, killers are in both direction the worm trail of track that makes them into a sluggathon, as I said the range for modern diesels does not have the impact that it used to have, but its still a hindrance for efficiency.

The whole of the line needs work and realignments that will benefit both freight ant passenger services, freight will always have needs for more time from A - B compared to passenger trains which take much less time over the sections for obvious reasons. From where I look at things, the NT line is one issue with a big issue the Liverpool range, while little or no freight goes to Armidale anymore there is nil of an issue for the XPL either.

Turn to the Southern Line or the old short south and its another matter altogether. The line south of Campbelltown needs a totally new alignment and one that is capable of 200Km/h for the whole line as far as Goulburn for starters. The old Main South line through Picton is still a viable line for the Southern Highlands commuter type trains especially to & from Sydney, if they ran without the need to change trains at Campbeltown I am certain that more would use those services. There is a good amount of coal from Tahmoor, Blue Metal from Marulan, and grain to Maldon, not sure what if anything comes out of the old cement works at Maldon or Berrima but being slower traffic makes the old line still viable.

As for the Canberra discussion, my belief would be that the existing line could and should be upgraded especially the sections from the Molonglo gorge area as it would not be easy to fix compared to the rest of the line, which needs to have a decent rehabilitation program set up for it. Much of the line could readily be able to be upgraded to 160K speeds to Goulburn.

How about getting that ridiculous new decking platform extension removed from Milllthorpe station and realign the existing track back to the original platform than worrying about a bullet train.

I always knew Gladys was a sensible person now canning that ridiculous SFS redevelopment.

I blame corporate greed just like simstrain, and I blame the government, as they do a lot of the importing and that is out of the control of the everyday Australian, things like rails from Spain as you mentioned, and trains from China and Korea.

Regarding the use of the word 'regional', I understand what you mean about how it is used to identify certain areas such as the Northern Tablelands, but I dislike it because (at least in my opinion), it brings up imagery of open farmland and small country towns, and people speak as though there are two parts of NSW; Sydney being a city, and the rest regional,

not seeming to realise that you can travel just 80km's south of Sydney, and find a place a 200K population, home to a stadium, educational facilities, a significant industrial area, a significant retail centre, and an amusement park, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?
you can also travel 160km's north of Sydney, and find a place with a 400K population, home to an even larger stadium, larger educational facilities, another significant industrial area, multiple significant retail centres with international retailers, and an international airport, does this bring up imagery of open farmland and country towns?

Unfortunately the government seems to have the same mindset, meaning we see infrastructure development and employment generate in Sydney and nowhere else, and while it makes sense that the bulk of infrastructure and amenities investments are concentrated in Sydney, they should not ONLY be in Sydney because no one can afford to live there.

Youth unemployment is soaring in Australia, particular outside of Sydney, and families, especially single parents and single income familes simply can not afford to live in Sydney, especially in a suburb with proper access to public transport (park and ride does not count),
but if they live outside of Sydney in extreme car dependence, they can't afford to buy their children a car and pay the exorbitant insurance premiums either, and no employer in these areas will hire someone who doesn't own a car, and paying all the car-related expenses on the $240/week JobSeeker payment is certainly not an option, so as a result, we see youth unemployment soaring, especially in the only places familes can afford to live, meaning Australia not looking good for future generations,
and lastly, and most relevantly, commuting is not an option because, as I mentioned before, most job applications today are filtered through software packages, just a simple negative answer such as an address outside an hour's commute time could see an application rejected, and high-speed rail WON'T change this.


Regarding what you said about faster rail benefiting things like tourism, I absolutely agree, but as long as the price is right, I think a 7 hour rail journey could be competitive with an hour long flight if the price was right, ideally half that of flying and remaining consistent (as opposed to the dynamic price fluctuations in the airline industry).
Especially with the airline industry facing an uncertain future thanks to Covid-19, if Qantas was the only airline in Australia (which is thankfully looking less likely than when I first said this), that would be the end of domestic air travel for the average Australian.

Something to consider with the concept of distance and the like. The term regions or regional has come to fruition out the simple fact of the growth of both Sydney & the regional areas, interestingly we rarely hear of the term that used to describe the Sydney and its metropolitan areas when they were part of the SYDNEY BASIN.  In fact the problem is that the Sydney basin has spread to such a degree its more akin to a bath tub than a basin, many of those areas you mention 80K's and x population have been in existence for ages, also of note is how much of the Sydney basin was also called the food bowl for Sydney and suburbs, now over 95% is suburbs and full of block housing, those farmland aspects you mention were actually a big part of & in the Sydney basin.

When you blame corporations, also is a need to blame the governments over the years for divesting themselves of local purchasing, they blame the unions for demanding too much wage in the wage increases along with many other areas, but shrug off the idea of corporate and government pay increases when they hold the pen for the signatures and then tell all the workers no pay rises this year.

If job applications were considered on the basis of postcode or suburb name, I would suggest that would apply to more of a lot of the suburbs in Sydney also in regional towns/cities, where people there apply for jobs only to get the dole, they are so unreliable that employers wont look at them owing to their lack of commitment and please don't expect me to get my hands dirty, or the travel times to the city & I have to change trains to get to a job. It also happens in the regions, and a reason why some go to the regions to live as they get cheaper housing and usually find no jobs are available so they get the dole along bonuses owing to location of livening.  Not all are like that though.

An hour in a plane is better for the vast majority of people including tourists than 7 hours in a train, the train travel though can be more enjoyable for tourists as they sit in the train and look out to see the landscape, ok for one way travel and more usually on the outward trip.  Rail has advantages for tourism but also has its problems especially when the lines are pretty much early 20century alignments and times.

Check out this video that claims the NSW government is apparently planning high speed rail (not likely and I hope not), it says that "travelling at high speed will make it easier to live, work, and do business across the state, giving people more choice in where they live, and giving business more oppurtunity to relocated or access markets", yet I have seen jobs with the NSW government say they will prioritise applicants in a 30 or 60 minute commute time, hypocrisy much? those high speed trains better be able to out run a plane!
I was fortunate to get a job in Sydney by using a family member's address on my application, I'm not holding my breath for a smooth tax return process though.

I'm glad you an acknowledge that not everyone on the dole is like you claimed, a lot of people have a harsh misunderstanding on what living on the dole is truly like.
For starters, one can not simply move more than 90 minutes away from Sydney to seek cheaper housing and still get the dole, as they will be cut off from Centrelink for 6 months, likewise they can't simply get a job and quit and be back on the dole, they will be cut off for a month if they do (unless they can prove a valid reason, excess travel time being one of them).
The dole is actually an extremely punitive system, I'm sure you have heard the news about $721 million that needs to be paid back thanks to automated debt recovery, and some regions (actual regions, not non-capital cities) are conducting a trail of cashless welfare cards that have already cost the tax payer millions.


An hour in a plane is better for the vast majority of people as you mentioned, however, I feel that a 7 hour train journey could be competitive if the price is right, and if the price is consistent and the booking process easy, we all know that booking a flight is like playing Wack-a-Mole.

How about getting that ridiculous new decking platform extension removed from Milllthorpe station and realign the existing track back to the original platform than worrying about a bullet train.

I always knew Gladys was a sensible person now canning that ridiculous SFS redevelopment.

At least there is a service, we should be providing new services now (such as public transport networks outside of Sydney), and then going back to fix things like this.

I walked into a servo last night and saw the newspaper headline, something along the lines of "ANZ stadium abandoned to focus on job creation", sounds like great news, but actually seeing it on the newspaper headline showed the stupidity of how we were not focusing on this before, I truly believe Covid-19 had to happen.

If there is going to be a whole bunch of new infrastructure projects to bring back jobs and the economy, let's hope they have the common sense to realise that there is a whole lot of NSW outside of Sydney.

How about getting that ridiculous new decking platform extension removed from Milllthorpe station and realign the existing track back to the original platform than worrying about a bullet train.

I always knew Gladys was a sensible person now canning that ridiculous SFS redevelopment.

The new SFS is still going ahead. What got canned was the ANZ redevelopment.

Turn to the Southern Line or the old short south and its another matter altogether. The line south of Campbelltown needs a totally new alignment and one that is capable of 200Km/h for the whole line as far as Goulburn for starters. The old Main South line through Picton is still a viable line for the Southern Highlands commuter type trains especially to & from Sydney, if they ran without the need to change trains at Campbeltown I am certain that more would use those services. There is a good amount of coal from Tahmoor, Blue Metal from Marulan, and grain to Maldon, not sure what if anything comes out of the old cement works at Maldon or Berrima but being slower traffic makes the old line still viable.

As for the Canberra discussion, my belief would be that the existing line could and should be upgraded especially the sections from the Molonglo gorge area as it would not be easy to fix compared to the rest of the line, which needs to have a decent rehabilitation program set up for it. Much of the line could readily be able to be upgraded to 160K speeds to Goulburn.

Actually not as much needs to be done as you think. Instead of using the unfinished bridge to go to wollongong it could be used instead to run a better route more direct to where the current line joins back with the hume highway at bargo. That alone could remove 30 minutes. Remove some more winding loops south of here and you could save another 10-15 minutes. There is a little spot just north of exeter that could be fixed and a few others that could help increase the average speed.

Obviously the old Whitton alignment could solve some issues at the Cullerin range west of Goulburn. Fix the line at the spiral and duplication and track quality improvements south of Junee could remove another hour or two from the trip.

My bad Simstrain, I thought it was the SFS as I had no idea ANZ Stadium demolition had already begun.

Still a good thing from Gladys.

Turn to the Southern Line or the old short south and its another matter altogether. The line south of Campbelltown needs a totally new alignment and one that is capable of 200Km/h for the whole line as far as Goulburn for starters. The old Main South line through Picton is still a viable line for the Southern Highlands commuter type trains especially to & from Sydney, if they ran without the need to change trains at Campbeltown I am certain that more would use those services. There is a good amount of coal from Tahmoor, Blue Metal from Marulan, and grain to Maldon, not sure what if anything comes out of the old cement works at Maldon or Berrima but being slower traffic makes the old line still viable.

As for the Canberra discussion, my belief would be that the existing line could and should be upgraded especially the sections from the Molonglo gorge area as it would not be easy to fix compared to the rest of the line, which needs to have a decent rehabilitation program set up for it. Much of the line could readily be able to be upgraded to 160K speeds to Goulburn.

Actually not as much needs to be done as you think. Instead of using the unfinished bridge to go to wollongong it could be used instead to run a better route more direct to where the current line joins back with the hume highway at bargo. That alone could remove 30 minutes. Remove some more winding loops south of here and you could save another 10-15 minutes. There is a little spot just north of exeter that could be fixed and a few others that could help increase the average speed.

Obviously the old Whitton alignment could solve some issues at the Cullerin range west of Goulburn. Fix the line at the spiral and duplication and track quality improvements south of Junee could remove another hour or two from the trip.

The way things are ATM and going forward pax services to/from Moss Vale make the line very much a semi commuter/trip train like line, add the coalies, interstate freight, and trains to & from Marulan/Berrima and to Rooty Hill, not forgetting the two spots at Maldon that use rail, that line has more than enough trains for its viability, and it will only get worse when the new grain season arrives should the rains continue which looks likely to be the case.

The aspect that making a new line to near Bargo still leaves tight curves as far as Aylmerton and the tunnels. For me rather than trying to fix some of those areas heading south of Exeter and the Werai curves there are several locations where the line can be very much re-aligned for a better run all over.

Interesting you mention the Whitton alignments, there has been several blogs over the years that have referred to them as being able to be used again as it would bring a pretty big time saving, while those alignments all have some hefty grades and why they were eliminated with the new ones, the original reasoning was a fair call, today though going back to them & not just on the south but there are a few between Lithgow and Orange that could also be reverted to for the same reasons.

I have on more than one occasion made the call for those alignments to be brought back into consideration and returned to, but that should not be the only work to be done, where possible and there are several of them, the old alignments can in spots be aligned with the current trackwork that would be of higher grade/speed abilities.  I for one am all for those changes taking place and before ASAP.

My bad Simstrain, I thought it was the SFS as I had no idea ANZ Stadium demolition had already begun.

Still a good thing from Gladys.

ANZ is still standing. It was only going to be converted to rectangular and not demolished.

The way things are ATM and going forward pax services to/from Moss Vale make the line very much a semi commuter/trip train like line, add the coalies, interstate freight, and trains to & from Marulan/Berrima and to Rooty Hill, not forgetting the two spots at Maldon that use rail, that line has more than enough trains for its viability, and it will only get worse when the new grain season arrives should the rains continue which looks likely to be the case.

The aspect that making a new line to near Bargo still leaves tight curves as far as Aylmerton and the tunnels. For me rather than trying to fix some of those areas heading south of Exeter and the Werai curves there are several locations where the line can be very much re-aligned for a better run all over.

The line to moss vale is not semi commuter. There is barely 1 passenger train an hour and plenty of space for freight trains. There could be scope to run Sydney trains line further south alongside the freight line to Maldon where the ARTC could diverge on to a separate line that bypasses the picton loop.

Aylmerton and the tunnels obviously need some work as well and time savings can definitely be had there as well.

The way things are ATM and going forward pax services to/from Moss Vale make the line very much a semi commuter/trip train like line, add the coalies, interstate freight, and trains to & from Marulan/Berrima and to Rooty Hill, not forgetting the two spots at Maldon that use rail, that line has more than enough trains for its viability, and it will only get worse when the new grain season arrives should the rains continue which looks likely to be the case.

The aspect that making a new line to near Bargo still leaves tight curves as far as Aylmerton and the tunnels. For me rather than trying to fix some of those areas heading south of Exeter and the Werai curves there are several locations where the line can be very much re-aligned for a better run all over.

The line to moss vale is not semi commuter. There is barely 1 passenger train an hour and plenty of space for freight trains. There could be scope to run Sydney trains line further south alongside the freight line to Maldon where the ARTC could diverge on to a separate line that bypasses the picton loop.

Aylmerton and the tunnels obviously need some work as well and time savings can definitely be had there as well.

A few years ago a plan was raised to use the current alignment as a freight line and to divert the passenger trains to a new line bypassing piction
The plan was shown with local people and was swiftly defeated, 98 percent of those surveyed responded no, 1 percent were undecided and 1 percent were in support. The main reason that 98 percent put no was that they did not want to lose stations like picton which are among the most used southern stations
Another survey was carried out on what TfNSW should do to the line, the results were- 97 percent wanted electrification and increased services, 2 percent were undecided and 1 percent did not want any upgrades

I'm not suggesting to lose picton as a station or to shut the existing line down. The existing southern highlands services will continue to use the existing line with future electrification a possibility. My suggestion is to put a bypass in for freight and longer distance passenger services like the Xplorer and XPT which don't stop anywhere between Campbelltown and Moss Vale.