Posts by James Green
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Back on the balance of payments thing... I'm sure I've mooted shutting Tiwai in the past. I couldn't find much googling, although there is some comment that various projects (including Tiwai) protected us from balance of payment issues in the 80s (here).
Finally, some guy I haven't heard of has some interesting thoughts on closing Tiwai among other things. He also notes the terrifying impact dairying is having on power consumption. It is possible that they may not need to push surplus power from manapouri too far. He also laments the demise of NZED and its planning. Ahah. I just found a short biographical note on the author and the perspective makes more sense.
All in all interesting reading.
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Uh, from my vague understanding of economics, it's the movement of money generated by Tiwai Point. Something to do with the balance of payments and such. Basically, the smelther costs a s***load to run, and produces a high value product which is then sold, so it's to do with that money moving in and out of NZ. Or something.
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One of the locomotives currently in service was commissioned in ... 1951.
Apparently Toll owned Tranz Metro in Wellington. The DM (J-ville) units were c.1949. So apparently it would be good to get the rolling stock into the latter half of the 20th C.
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Oh wait, did I mention that there's not point in having fast train tracks if you don't have double track the whole way as well. Ideal to avoid signalling errors with a net impact speed of 600km/h :)
So many depressingly sensible reasons not to have fast trains :(
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Also, you can't drive slowly (ie send freight trains) on high speed tracks. The corners are sufficiently banked to only be taken at a good clip, in addition to have steeper sections of gradient (which the TGV mostly gets away with because of the momentum you have at 300kmph)
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Presumably it would be cheaper if we rebuilt on top of existing infrastructure.
There's a fairly easy reason for this if we're talking high speeds. LGV (ligne à grande vitesse) have a radius of 4km on the original tracks, and are now at 8km for new lines. While they handle steeper grades than most freight trains could handle, the reality is that they would require mostly brand new routes. You see this in france where the LGV typically goes nowhere near the old train routes (except into and out of cities).
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Still, when it was running that train was my choice of transport home for the holidays.
Same. In the mid-90s, they used to have special deals for students in the holidays ($35-40) from Dunedin to Christchurch. They had great seats, arranged in 4s round tables, so you could sit round and play cards, chat, etc. with a bunch of friends. Had a lot of fun. Sometimes we'd buy the children's play packs and do colouring in. Other times, we might have had an extra ingredient in the coke bottles we brought on board. They were good times.
Of course, having said that high speed train is unrealistic, if they could get a train to around 300km/h from Christchurch to Oamaru, then even if it had to do a go-slow for the final leg, that would be freaking choice. It's not exactly demanding terrain (although the river bridges would be expensive).
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Hills. And bendy bits. And shitty track. If you want fast trains, you need straight, level track, which would mean a significant capital investment.
Let's be very clear. It certainly would in some places. It has always been NZR practice to operate only at 90km/h, but in some parts of Canterbury were happening. It may be that to attain 120km/h speeds on a regular basis the lines would need to be maintained to a higher standard, but it would seem a good start.
A TGV-esque service would be fantastic. The French are lucky that they have a wider gauge to start with. While the cost of new TGV lines are expensive, they can also happily run on normal lines (at much lower speed). I went from Paris to to the Ruhr (via Dijon and Strasbourg) a couple of years back, and some times the trains were doing 295, but on the windy bits they were just back on normal track doing whatever they could reasonably.
Trains rule. Honestly. I can't understand why people would take a bus over a train (assuming they're similarly priced). It's so much more pleasant sitting round a table playing cards or going for a stroll than spending 40min at a tearooms in some crummy town for the bus driver's rest stop.
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Plz Mistuh Cullenz, can I haz mah Southerner back.
(also, if you could see fit to work out why in the new millennium we can't get a passenger train that can go faster than either the old Vulcan railcar or a steam JA-hauled passenger train).
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I have to admit I was counting.
Heh. I like that that review is applicable both to the book and the review itself.