On Sun, 24 May 2009 03:07 -0400, "P. J. Alling" <[email protected]> wrote: > Intercity passenger rail is expensive. It's estimated that Amtrak would > save the taxpayers money, (and in fact on some runs actually make a > profit), if every time someone bought a train ticket they simply issued > them a plane ticket to the same destination. Australia is a mostly low > population density place, much like most of the US so I expect the same > economics would apply.
True. But I still think that our State Governments don't have a clue when it comes to promoting rail travel. Not everyone wants or needs to get from A to B in the quickest time possible. Governments seem happy to let the infrastructure deteriorate and then wonder why passengers numbers fall. Yes, it's expensive. A few years ago we traveled from Brisbane to Cairns (about 1500km) on Queensland Rail's Sunlander. We could have flown there and back several times for what it cost. But it was one of the most memorable travel experiences my wife and I have experienced. Cheers Brian ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Brian Walters Western Sydney Australia http://members.westnet.com.au/brianwal/SL/ > > Brian Walters wrote: > > On Sat, 23 May 2009 15:24 -0400, "John Sessoms" <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > >> From: Scott Loveless > >> > >>> On 5/23/09, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> > >>>>> I like railways travel. It's very civilised - by far the most > >>>>> enjoyable way > >>>>> of travelling long distances. > >>>>> > >>> Obviously, you have never experienced Amtrak - the airline of the > >>> railways. > >>> > >> It's not that bad everywhere Amtrak runs ... > >> > >> Still, it doesn't make sense that every other country in the world seems > >> to be able to figure out how to get passenger trains to go where they're > >> needed, pretty much when they're needed, in a fairly efficient > >> expeditious, affordable manner, but we can't do it in the U.S. > >> > > > > > > > > We struggle here as well. Our State Governmments seem more intent on > > closing intercity passenger services than on promoting them. Or they > > make the timetable so inconvenient and so infrequent that few people > > bother. Tasmania has even managed to totally remove *all* of it's > > passenger services. > > > > There are 3 or 4 memorable long distance services in Australia but > > that's about it. > > > > > > Cheers > > > > Brian > > > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > Brian Walters > > Western Sydney Australia > > http://members.westnet.com.au/brianwal/SL/ > > > > > -- -- -- http://www.fastmail.fm - A fast, anti-spam email service. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
