Comment on Should Newcastle to Sydney bullet train really be first link built of Melbourne to Brisbane route?
philpo@feddit.org 3 days ago
Never let politicians run a railway system.
Comment on Should Newcastle to Sydney bullet train really be first link built of Melbourne to Brisbane route?
philpo@feddit.org 3 days ago
Never let politicians run a railway system.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 3 days ago
I would suggest quite the opposite. Privatised transportation systems have proven themselves to be absolute abject failures. The UK is currently moving back towards nationalised railway after decades of failure under privatisation. My city of Brisbane, Australia has one private railway, and it’s extortionately expensive at 45 times the price of our regular public transport…and they have literally not allowed any other public transport along that route to be run.
Private businesses necessarily need to make a profit. But public transport is a public good (in the informal sense), and it’s practically an economic public good. It shouldn’t be run for profit, but for the benefit of society. That means sometimes being unprofitable.
philpo@feddit.org 3 days ago
Oh,don’t get me wrong, I am all against privatized railway systems and literally fighting against that where I currently live. (Currently living jn Europe and the difference is very obvious) BUT: That doesn’t mean letting politicians plan things is a good idea either.
Why? Because then you get the worst of both worlds - because their interested is not the optimal system for everyone but the optimal result for them. So you get stops, expensive detours or “solutions” that do not benefit 98% of the users but are a nice gift/benefit for their constituents in their small electoral districts. (Germany is a very good example for that. They have a lot of high speed lines that could be 30-40% faster if the trains would not “need” to stop in bumfucknowhere towns and have literally build expensive tunnels for billions that are now not used for most connections as they need the extra stop or their semi private railway system would need to repay subsidies)
The same can be seen in the US, etc.
Railway systems need to be planned by a very large scale - and by people who have the optimal solution for the railway system and the population in mind,not local interests.