News & Discussion: Public Transport Contracts, Service & Policy

[Will409]

There are indications that the State Government is currently trying to cover either part or even the full cost of the rebuild by making a bid for the Federal Goverment's "Building Australia Infrastructure Fund" which has a total of $20 billion in total which will be handed out for various infrastructure projects. Anything we can get from that fund will no doubt help greatly.

[frank1]

Yeah well don't count on to much from the feds. NSW and Vic get the most and generally speaking SA gets the least amount of fed money for infrastructure. State gov will have to pay for almost all of it.

[Wayno]

Yeah well don't count on to much from the feds. NSW and Vic get the most and generally speaking SA gets the least amount of fed money for infrastructure. State gov will have to pay for almost all of it.

Our mining industry prospects have forever changed the apportioning equation. It should already be obvious to Canberra that SA will become a key export state for Australia and in not too many years time. Infrastructure for a growing population and increased road/rail freight requires more cash than we can fund ourselves. I believe victoria & nsw will be the biggest losers...

[Will409]

I dunno about that Wayno, Victoria has made a bid for a quarter of the total $20billion package

[frank1]

I dunno about that Wayno, Victoria has made a bid for a quarter of the total $20billion package

Dam Vics, always pilfering our precious fed money

[mattblack]

Im sure that with all SA's critical needs needs with water, public transport and roads we put in a fair size bid ourselves. Anyone know what we asked for?

I dunno about that Wayno, Victoria has made a bid for a quarter of the total $20billion package

[Shuz]

Electrification of the rail network is abouut $570m, and the construction of a new Hills rail line looks to be rather costly also - are two projects which I am hoping the Feds will cover the entire cost of that so we can direct the funds into renovating the entire network from scratch - eliminating level crossings, station relocations (forcing closure of some), station upgrades (comparable to Oaklands at least), purchase of high-speed rolling stock. Anything I've forgotten?

[Düsseldorfer]

Electrification of the rail network is abouut $570m, and the construction of a new Hills rail line looks to be rather costly also - are two projects which I am hoping the Feds will cover the entire cost of that so we can direct the funds into renovating the entire network from scratch - eliminating level crossings, station relocations (forcing closure of some), station upgrades (comparable to Oaklands at least), purchase of high-speed rolling stock. Anything I've forgotten?

an underground in the city??

Country/regional trains??

[Cruise]

Country/regional trains??

Umm, to where?

[ozisnowman]

For starters for regional centers you would do Victor Harbour, Barossa, Mt Barker and possibly Murray Bridge
as they are all close to Adelaide would suit high speed rail and hence take the pressure on the need for
people to live close to Adelaide. After that a line to Millicent and Mt Gambier to hook up the the Vic network
and then one to Pt Pirie, Pt August and Pt Lincoln

[Cruise]

Rail services to all the towns you just mentioned are not needed.

[AtD]

High Speed Rail works well for Paris to London. Not too sure about Gawler to Angaston...

Random fact. South Australia's second largest urban area, Mt. Gambier, is Australia's 50th largest urban area. It has a population of just over a fifth of the City of Salisbury and a quarter of Charles Sturt. In short, regional centres are waaaaaaaaaay down the priority list.

[ozisnowman]

They are not need if you dont want to expand your economy or population etc.
But if you want to increase your population, grow your economy and make
your state more prosperous having such infrastructure would help. It would
also help in decentralising the population away from Adelaide. But Industries
would need to have Government concessions and incentives to set up in
regional centres.... Such an approach should also occur at a Federal Level
too as Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne etc are too big as is, we need bigger
and more competitive regional centres of 50-250,000...

[rhino]

But Industries would need to have Government concessions and incentives to set up in regional centres...

The biggest incentive the govt could give would be freight transport concessions. The biggest hurdle when considering moving industry away from the Adelaide area is the cost of transporting product to market. If transport was cheaper, there would be more incentive for industry to move to cheaper land outside provincial cities or even country towns. Industry needs workers, so if industry moves, people move out there too, and people require services, which require more people, who, in turn, require more services. It all comes down to the cost of freight transport.

[skyliner]

Rail services to all the towns you just mentioned are not needed.

I beg to differ. The Protavia Penola Pulp Mill necessitates a line at least to there (8km south of Penola). Another 40 odd Km to MG. Vic is looking to link up MG from Heywood as Portland is getting it's line back. That leaves a short connection from Heywood to MG and the link right through would be done. The viability of a passenger service is being looked at for MG now. Freight links to Portland also. MG at 25000 people is one of VERY VERY FEW places of this size in Aust. without rail. My support is fully for the re connection.The current line is BG (broad gauge) and only needs one rail shifted to standard gauge. The line was last upkept by the Limestone Coast Railway so is not near as derelict as one might think.

But back to the thread topic - I hope the Feds contribute a significant sum from thre infrastructure fund towards our metro electrification, given the mines and future growth.(Read the mines thread).

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE