VFT

[billy the kid]

Brian, I couldn't really give a fuck what you think.....
The thrust of the article apart from the VFT topic was the need for the Australian Government to have
a vision for an economic recovery.
Needless to say, rather than zeroing in on the Tories lack of vision, you simply, as per usual, just want to argue.
I suppose people like you with Asperger's syndrome will argue ad infinitum...that's how your half a brain is wired.
Personally I think the only vision this government has got is the vision into the trough which they all have their
snouts in...why would they care about anything else......

[Juliar]

Holy Moses! The Greenies will be coughing up furballs!!!! The VFT produces MASSIVE amounts of nasty emissions!!!!!



High-speed rail on Australia’s east coast would increase emissions for up to 36 years
10:00pm, May 25, 2020 Updated: 10:36pm, May 25


High speed rail. The Grattan Institute has crunched the environmental numbers on the benefits of high-speed rail for Australia. Photo: Getty

Bullet trains are back on the political agenda.

As the major parties look for ways to stimulate the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, Labor is again spruiking its vision of linking Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane with high-speed trains similar to the Eurostar, France’s TGV or Japan’s Shinkansen.

In 2013 when Labor was last in government, it released a detailed feasibility study of its plan.

But a Grattan Institute report released on Monday shows bullet trains are not a good idea for Australia.

Among other shortcomings, we found an east coast bullet train would not be the climate saver many think it would be.


AnAl releases another white elephant. A high-speed rail study in 2013. The idea has long been mooted. Photo: AAP

Read on and be suffocated by all the emissions here

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/20 ... australia/

[Juliar]

Infrastructure Australia says very fast trains could be running between SYD and CBR within 15 years & to MEL in 20


High speed rail between Canberra and Sydney possible by 2032
This was published 2 years ago By Adam Carey and Noel Towell July 6, 2017 — 9.47pm

Rapid growth on the fringes of Sydney and Melbourne threatens to add billions of dollars to the cost of building a high-speed rail line between the two cities, Infrastructure Australia warns.

The federal government's infrastructure advisory agency says high speed trains could be running between Canberra and Sydney within 15 years, but governments must act quickly to avoid potential cost blowouts.

A report to be published on Friday by Infrastructure Australia says the governments of NSW and Victoria should get in early and buy land along the proposed rail corridor now, at an estimated cost of $720 million, or pay more than $3.5 billion later.

The agency says a failure to protect the corridor within the next three to five years could do serious harm to a project that will become vital given the populations of Melbourne and Sydney are projected to double by 2060.

More here

This was published 2 years ago By Adam ... 7 — 9.47pm

[Juliar]

The correct reference address
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hig ... x6c1k.html


And they have been talking about VFT for may years now.

NSW Government announces major high-speed rail network plan
news.com.au DECEMBER 4, 2018 12:18PM
Journey times could be slashed by up to 75 per cent as the NSW Government unveils a high-speed rail network. Here’s where it will go.
Good video to see here
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy ... 7ca8168feb


High-speed rail plan back on the table as southeast Queensland considers Olympic bid
Natalie Wolfe news.com.au OCTOBER 10, 20188:48AM
IT’S going to cost billions of dollars but a bold new plan is hoping to connect booming Aussie regions with high-speed trains.

AFTER years of empty promises, a plan to connect some of Australia’s busiest regions with high-speed rail is on the table again and this time the multi-billion dollar plan is gathering momentum.

Victoria, Queensland and NSW have all expressed their desire to get fast rail in their states for years but it’s a new proposal put forward by southeast Queensland that could finally stick.

Earlier this week, the Council of Mayors of southeast Queensland released information from a feasibility study.

The Council of Mayors, made up of 10 councils from around southeast Queensland and representing more than three million people, first looked into whether the region could host an Olympic Games last year.

The region is hoping to host the 2032 Olympic Games — a global event that the council says would pair perfectly with a high-speed rail network linking all of southeast Queensland’s towns and cities.

another grand plan evaporates...
https://www.news.com.au/technology/inno ... 4d8da00274

[Black Orchid]

How can work already be underway but planning isn't? Both statements are at odds with each other.

[Gordon]

How would VFT help people on the Central Coast commuting to Sydney as it seems most of them are tradies.

Can you get ladders and all the plumbing gear into a VFT carriage?

[freediver]

https://inlandrail.artc.com.au/

[Juliar]

What is freediver doing here " Spying ?

The VFT is an elusive will of the wish that crops up every now and again.

If Socialist Labor tries to start it up then it will end up like their NeverBuiltNetwork.



From showpiece to goat track: the long, dangerous decline of Sydney-to-Melbourne rail travel. Last week’s tragic derailment of an XPT passenger train was the culmination of decades of neglect
Royce Kurmelovs Wed 26 Feb 2020 10.53 AEDT Last modified on Wed 26 Feb 2020 14.24 AEDT


An investigator photographs the XPT train that derailed on a section of track that was awaiting maintenance, killing two. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP

“The Melbourne-Sydney rail line should be the jewel in the crown of Australia’s interstate rail network,” Luba Grigorovitch said.

“Instead, it’s known within the industry as the goat track because it is in such bad condition.”

The secretary of the Victorian branch of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union was grieving the deaths of driver John Kennedy, 54, and his 49-year-old pilot, Sam Meintanis, in last week’s XPT crash near Wallan, Victoria.

In doing so the union leader captured a widespread frustration at the decline of what was once a premium service, but which has now been reduced to a tortuous crawl between Australia’s two largest cities – one that stands in embarrassing contrast to the the development of fast rail in other countries.

As long ago as 1962 the storied Southern Aurora ran the route as a luxury overnight train with a top speed of 130km/h, making the trip in 13 hours. In 1982 the service was replaced by the current XPT fleet, which had a top speed of 160km/h. At their best, the trains shaved two hours off the trip.

By then the world had already moved on. Japan launched its first Shinkansen, or bullet train, in 1964.

Today the Shinkansen is held up as the standard for rail services across the world for speed and reliability. With a top speed of 300km/h, the service connects major cities across 2,000km of track. Its success has inspired similar projects across North America, Europe and China.

But big dreams in Australia of a high-speed passenger rail line connecting Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne, capable of speeds that would make it competitive with air travel, have died time and time again, leaving the XPT as a clanking relic.


Read on here

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... ail-travel

[Juliar]

Australia’s Very Fast Train (VFT) project, 1984 to 1991

(A comprehensive Wikipedia article describing the VFT project and other achievements of Dr Paul Wild should be read in conjunction with the following remarks, which are by former members of the project.)

The VFT (Very Fast Train) Project was a visionary proposal in 1984 by CSIRO chairman Dr Paul Wild to run trains, much like TGVs, between Sydney and Melbourne via Canberra.

The project became a private-sector joint venture in 1987. It almost succeeded, but collapsed in 1991 when the federal government declined to initiate a tax policy that would have resulted in higher tax being paid over all but with less tax at the beginning of the project when major outlays would occur.

Ironically, the federal government soon introduced infrastructure bonds to assist major projects facing the same financial hurdles as the VFT. However, Australian governments have continued to struggle to find acceptable mechanisms for public–private partnerships undertaking infrastructure projects.


Paul Wild on track in front of TGV, France, 1989Dr Paul Wild, instigator of the VFT project, during a visit to France in 1989 in which he and his colleagues discussed the project with officials of SNCF and Alstom. The following year, a TGV trainset similar to this one set a world wheel-on-rail speed record of 515.3 km/h; the current (3 April 2007) record is 574.8 km/h (357.16 mph).

[Photo © A. John Nicolson 1989. It is available for download and unrestricted re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 3.0 licence.]

Read the rest here

http://www.repositoryofideas.com/VFT_information.html

[Juliar]

Australian Very Fast Trains-A Chronology
Paula Williams Economics, Commerce and Industrial Relations Group 6 April 1998

Introduction
Since the early 1980s, when high speed rail services in France received considerable publicity, there have been a number of schemes to introduce similar services to Australia.
The largest of these schemes was a plan to construct and operate a line between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
This scheme was backed by BHP, Elders IXL, Kumagai Gumi, and TNT-the VFT 'Joint Venture'.
This scheme was abandoned in 1991, primarily because it failed to secure tax changes from the Federal Government that it claimed would have made it financially viable.
Presently, (April 1998) a range of more modest proposals, including schemes to link Canberra and Sydney have emerged. Whether this project will be successful or 'derailed' as was the Joint Venture, will be of considerable interest.

There appear to be a number of similarities between the various proposals to build high speed rail lines. The proposals are backed by private enterprise, and considerable resources are devoted to extensive feasibility studies. The proponents of the schemes claim that there would be several advantages to the projects, including:

reduced travel time
job creation
industry development
economic stimulus
increased tourism
decreased pressures on road and air transport, including the airports
rural and regional development
enhanced freight capacity.

The proposals are exceptionally costly compared to conventional rail systems, with the cost increasing substantially for the fastest train technologies. The least costly, but slowest fast train technology involves 'tilt trains', while the fastest technology, involving magnetic levitation, is extremely expensive. Between these two extremes is the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) technology used by the French. While 'tilt trains' may appear to offer a short term financial advantage over more expensive technology, they may not operate at speeds which attract enough customers to make them viable.

Government support for proposals has generally been positive but guarded, with approval being dependent upon the projects demonstrating that they would bring considerable benefits, but not require a net government outlay. A number of reports have been conducted by or on behalf of governments to determine the impacts and/or feasibility of the projects, and unlike the reports released by the proponents of the schemes, the conclusions of the reports have been mixed. Concerns have been expressed about the social, environmental, and financial impacts of the services-and especially the possibility that the government will need to 'bail out' failed projects.

The proposals are dependent upon both State, Territory and Federal Governments for a range of assistance including land acquisition, agency cooperation, and perhaps the provision of financial incentives. There have however been difficulties in coordinating State, Territory and Federal Government approaches to proposals-with each on occasion accusing the others of being uncooperative. There is also the danger that if a coordinated approach to fast rail services is abandoned the States may separately introduce incompatible fast train technology, which could make each service less viable and prevent the development of a national network of fast trains.

This chronology attempts to provide a background to the current proposals, and given that the current fast train proposal between Canberra and Sydney has had significant precedents, should be of use in placing it in an appropriate context.

Read the rest of the VFT train to nowhere here

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament ... 798/98bp16