Rail vandalism Re: [Peakoil] Significant interview

[Keith Thomas]

It is important to note - despite moving off topic - that the 
destruction of rail was not simply an exercise in unthinking 
belligerence.  It was a deliberate policy to put money into the pockets 
of land speculators who got the land that was once rail corridors and 
sold it at a huge profit. Land speculation and profiteering lies behind 
much of what governments do, especially at the local and State levels. 
it also lies behind much environmental destruction.  Bringing this back 
to peak oil, we can see that many urban investment properties will lose 
money and I predict these people will be amongst the most bitter and 
most vocal complainants.  If their complaints are responded to 
positively, we will all suffer. Land/property speculators should be at 
the VERY end of the queue for any compensation or assistance.

--------------------------------------------
Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
--------------------------------------------
On 31/08/2005, at 1:30 PM, Alex P wrote:

> This is pretty shocking:
>
> "So in the early 1990's, one of the things that the then Queensland
> government did was it looked at country rail lines and said, Are these 
> rail
> lines efficient? Are they profitable insofar as the number of people
> completely covers the cost of operating this service? And where that 
> didn't
> stack up we shut the rail lines. But it was a belligerent exercise. We
> didn't merely stop operating the trains, we tore up the tracks and 
> sold the
> corridors. So I think of it as a belligerent economic rationalism 
> where we
> said 'Not only are we not going to do this but we're going to make it
> really hard to ever go back.' And so we burned our bridges, literally.
> That's, I think, going to be looked on as one of the major policy 
> failings
> of the last quarter of a century in Queensland because the idea that 
> rail
> had to be profitable for government to offer it, a rail service had to 
> be
> profitable, is missing the point about building public infrastructure 
> and
> public capacity, and indeed service to the public."
>
> Fortunately the NSW rail authorities have a policy of not selling off 
> rail
> corridors, even if the rail line is booked out of use.
>
> Alex
> O4O4873828
>