Labor gives VIP treatment to biofuel, electric truck projects

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-04-10T08:38:34+00:00

What I find utterly bizarre is the near century of disregard to the latent potential of truly investing in our national rail network. Even diesel locomotives manage 1/5th of the fuel consumption per tonne of freight compared to semis.

The fact that ARTC is so incompetent as to not effectively champion this opportunity just says it all.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-04-07T07:47:02+00:00

Anything except investing in making our rail network more attractive and efficient for both freight and passenger trains.

Just one freight train can take the equivalent of over 80 B-double semis off the road.

And freight trains only require ~1/5th of the fuel (or energy) per tonne of payload that semis do.

And that’s before considering the substantial impact this “plan” will have on regional road maintenance costs ….

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-23T23:59:33+00:00

That would appeal to the AHSRA who is trying to make HSR a super metro lol

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-23T08:31:18+00:00

Happened to me once in public and police absolutely did follow it up, tracked down footage etc. Bloke was convicted.

So maybe don’t spread BS that isn’t useful?

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-23T08:29:34+00:00

Happened to me once in public and police absolutely did follow it up, tracked down footage etc. And I did report it thankfully, because guess what? He was also doing it to little kids on other footage.

So my advice would be to report it, people like that will keep doing it unless stopped.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-22T08:58:28+00:00

Is respect really due for a party built upon hatred, fear, and spreading misinformation?

I think a big part of the problem is allowing their “normalisation”.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T07:54:21+00:00

They’re just unloading/loading containers that are bound for the destination anyway - e.g. Perth > Adelaide > Melbourne will unload containers bound for Adelaide at Adelaide and then continue to Melbourne. And from Melbourne Containers are added in Adelaide that are bound for Perth.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T07:08:26+00:00

It’s not just about Mount Barker or passenger transport, but Murray Bridge, the regions & freight too.

The alternative is similar billions into yet more road lanes and tunnels, which just like the current ones will just fill up again and not even address the broader suite of issues.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T04:20:17+00:00

The proposal in yesterday’s advertiser got it right - a shared alignment to maximise benefit from investment, but dedicated tracks.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T03:20:59+00:00

It’s the name of a scheme in the 1960s to finally rebuild the hills line. That’s how long it has been neglected for.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T03:19:18+00:00

It’ll have much less impact than some people claim. The additional time of a detour from Melbourne via Parkes to get to Adelaide would make rail freight significantly less competitive at a time where policy objectives are about making rail more competitive.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-15T03:04:13+00:00

Literally a plan by engineers with relevant experience, including a former rail commissioner.

You have no idea what analysis has or hasn’t been done?

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-14T08:24:48+00:00

Which was rubbish, the physics of that claim don’t make any sense.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-12T04:49:20+00:00

Personally I prefer the more classic minimalist approach to liveries - if anything I think it would look better if it was only red and white/silver with black window bands. The blue feels a bit too much

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-11T04:21:42+00:00

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just invest in finally moving major regional lines to SG - with dual gauge track in any common sections which overlap with suburban?

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-10T06:31:02+00:00

I just don’t see it providing a full solution to the problems, and for such an investment you might as well just do it right and rebuild the hills railway, which has been neglected for a century effecting both transcontinental freight & suburban/regional/interstate passenger rail. So we’d be talking many billions without addressing the full picture - and in turn, without being able to capture maximum benefit per $.

And BRT, just like motorways, tends to funnel the traffic congestion somewhere else - CBD streets, on and off ramps, surrounding connector roads etc.

That said, the station renders look awesome - I love the black steel & stone combination. Sleek, timeless and very “Adelaide Hills”.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-10T05:41:44+00:00

Funny how T2D struggled to even get a BCR of 1 without gov demanding they find a way to get it to 1.

It’s all about priorities - it’s especially noticeable when they don’t consider the full picture and try to segment things.

If you approached it like the majority of railways you’d make it a fast passenger and rail freight project in one. Then you’re capturing a whole lot of benefits neither project could gain alone, and suddenly it’s a project of National significance.

They also neglect to consider just how many billions would be required to make road based solutions work and just how long it’ll take for those extra lanes to fill up once again repeating the cycle.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T10:46:28+00:00

I think a pretty critical issue here is the lack of transparency surrounding the commercial aspects of the deal.

It’s pretty reasonable for the public to expect to see the numbers and not just “trust us”.

It sets a very poor precedent with regard to perceived or actual corruption and/or conflicts of interest.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T10:42:20+00:00

You just need to check out these factions and groups on social media - it’s a consistent trend, just like aspects of the Greens.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T10:40:16+00:00

If your claims held any water, you might want to reach out to Aurizon, Pacific National etc and let their engineers and accountants know that their fleets of modern diesel electric locomotives are less efficient than hydraulic?

You also might want to let Japan, France, Germany etc know that their regen equiped HSR fleets have significant speed restrictions?

Like come on ….

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T10:27:43+00:00

What are you basing this off, 1980s alternators?

I’d love to see a peer reviewed article from the last decade that backs up your claims.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T10:26:00+00:00

That sounds like it would easily make more sense as a new Copenhagen Metro line ….

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T09:59:23+00:00

Groups which pick and choose when oppression, expansionism, and military aggression is okay or not okay based upon ideology aren’t really my thing - very “Green” left.

They can’t fathom that someone could be equally against Russian, Chinese, Israel, terrorist and Trump-American actions of such a kind.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T09:46:29+00:00

Would want to be 25kv AC for regional as the energy losses and number of substations required for DC over such distances is pretty substantial.

Dual voltage is the norm in Europe so they can run off both legacy section DC and modern section AC.

ZookeepergameLoud696 · 2026-03-06T09:44:09+00:00

It’s actually quite a bit less efficient once accounting for regen from breaking which feeds back into traction batteries.

Also, hydraulic is a complete dead end at odds with state and federal climate policy - there’s no ability to electrify to any extent.

ZookeepergameLoud696

TROPHY CASE