Before the Lonie report there was also the 1971-72 Bland report. I travel alongside the bright/Yackandandah and Mansfield/Alexandra lines weekly and can only imagine how active and scenic they would have been in their heyday
The bland report obviously had some impact but the closures of the late 70s were inevitable and certainly very delayed if they were a consequence of the report. The bright and Mansfield lines were never really busy and at best had a couple trains per day.
@@MetroManMelbourne very true, they were both very dilapidated by closure but they did have busy periods particularly transporting materials for the Kiewa hydro scheme and Eildon dam
Agreed. I just completed a trip to the high country and it made me sad to once again see the old trails where the Bright and Mansfield lines ran. I would think in winter those two lines would be great for tourism as they serve Mt Buffalo, Mt Hotham and Mt Buller. Alexandra was only a short brwnch line so it was never going to survive.
I knew a grain farmer in SA, I asked if he used rail & he said no because he has to pay storage fees until the grain is picked up, he pays cartage fees and storage fees until the grain is shipped - he trucked his grain straight to the warf. The Warrnambool intermodal train is limited to 1000T due to the Verdon St hill, the former operator wanted to utilise Colac as an additional intermodal facility but was stopped from doing so - he could have picked up freight from 2 other milk processing plants..
Greta footage and info thanks, I joined Vline in '83 as a fireman. It was only a couple of years but what a great experience on the north east line. All the wooden sleepers are gone, as well as the semaphore signals. Feels like it was a hundred years ago.
Another line which has been forgotten is the Whitfield narrow gauge line which like the Bright line branched off at Wangaratta. It was important for the towns along the line carrying livestock and produce. Another victim was the Maffra/Heyfield line branching off from Sale.
Certainly motor vehicles were a competitor by the 1920s but the growth of the state in itself meant plenty of traffic to go around. The shortage of fuel did postpone many cuts as the state was entirely unable to function without rail transport in the 30s and 40s. But there were two things that you didn't mention. The biggest cuts were in the early 50s. The theory is that as the branch lines were unprofitable cutting them would mean that trucks brought the traffic to the main lines. That didn't happen. So once the traffic was on the trucks it went the entire way. Hence the lesser main lines subsequently became unprofitable. The other big factor was that the high court banned states from charging tax to trucks using the roads if the truck had gone across the border. So many trucks made a detour to cross the border to then exempt them from taxation. These factors made a big difference to the profitability of the rail network.
A really good synopsis of the VR in your video👍 Today we can see what happens when governments don't support freight on rails. The roads are so broken up with all the heavy trucks carrying freight and grain that they have to spend even more $$ in repairing the roads. A drive along the Western Freeway to Ballarat is an easy example to see. In the future freight will have to go back on rails and some of those closed branch lines will re-open. Whittlesea, Healesville, Wonthaggi, Daylesford and obviously daily passenger trains to Mildura and Hamilton/Horsham. It's just a matter of time.
Answer to freight rail is interstate. Yes roads are getting knocked about and local council budgets cannot keep up however most rural roads were not made for heavy trucks. Once they are remade properly they hold up. Interesting that the Mooloort grain siding could be a rail head again but local farmers move grain with their own trucks to Geelong. I will say that trucks do provide more local jobs, cafes, service stations, tyre shops, mechanical repair plus Vicroads pulling them off the road and transport related industry benifits. Apart from BRW Bendigo broad gauge all wagon/ loco maintenance is in big cities. You can always divert traffic around road accident but rail derailment there is major log jams over weeks or months. The North East Tasmanian railway was a good example. ANTasrail put a lot of money to ungrage a track designed for 300 ton shor trains, not 1500 tonne. It took up to a hour between Ledgerwood to Scottsdale by train (15 minutes by road) No way was the power milk factory sending their product by rail when truck to port was about 2 hours). However when the ANtasrail pulled the pin. The log truck and road haulage owners said great we can invest in trucks. Then all the saw mills closed, woodchip maket collapsed when the banks pulled out of the Gunns proposed pulp mill at Bell Bay. Local road contractors with debt with a truck and no income. Maybe establishing a tourist train combining a railtrail camping picnic ground between Lebrina and Wyena could help reboot local economy and community asset.?? Thinking outside the box.
The decline of the Victorian Railways commenced with the Bland Report in 1971/1972 which recommended deregulation of freight and wholesale closure of many minor branch lines.
possibly, but I would really say it began in the 1920s when cars started to become more widespread. The great depression and WW2 just delayed the process by 20 years.
I once saw a graph of VR wages and revenue which was parallel until 1970 and then wages suddenly shot up and then there was the Bland Report. There was a lot of industrial action which occured regularly until the Kennett era which pushed wages up.
Sorry to all those services that were cut by the New Deal For Country Passengers except for Donald because your train station was served by the Vinelander train to Mildura.
Decline of VR? It still exists today, its called V Line and its still running Australia's oldest, largest and busiest regional train network in the southern hemisphere so whats the problem?
@@MetroManMelbourne what did I get banned for? The last thing I did was I entered the voice channel, and then the server disappeared. So I got banned just like that.
@@A_couple_of_cakepies I have sufficient evidence to believe you are under 13, and I believed you were already banned from my discord server, but when I found otherwise, I banned you. Feel free to join back when you turn 13.
Before the Lonie report there was also the 1971-72 Bland report. I travel alongside the bright/Yackandandah and Mansfield/Alexandra lines weekly and can only imagine how active and scenic they would have been in their heyday
The bland report obviously had some impact but the closures of the late 70s were inevitable and certainly very delayed if they were a consequence of the report. The bright and Mansfield lines were never really busy and at best had a couple trains per day.
@@MetroManMelbourne very true, they were both very dilapidated by closure but they did have busy periods particularly transporting materials for the Kiewa hydro scheme and Eildon dam
Agreed.
I just completed a trip to the high country and it made me sad to once again see the old trails where the Bright and Mansfield lines ran.
I would think in winter those two lines would be great for tourism as they serve Mt Buffalo, Mt Hotham and Mt Buller.
Alexandra was only a short brwnch line so it was never going to survive.
I knew a grain farmer in SA, I asked if he used rail & he said no because he has to pay storage fees until the grain is picked up, he pays cartage fees and storage fees until the grain is shipped - he trucked his grain straight to the warf.
The Warrnambool intermodal train is limited to 1000T due to the Verdon St hill, the former operator wanted to utilise Colac as an additional intermodal facility but was stopped from doing so - he could have picked up freight from 2 other milk processing plants..
Greta footage and info thanks, I joined Vline in '83 as a fireman. It was only a couple of years but what a great experience on the north east line.
All the wooden sleepers are gone, as well as the semaphore signals. Feels like it was a hundred years ago.
I really, REALLY like the idea of this series, thanks for the first episode and I’m hyped fo the second!
Another line which has been forgotten is the Whitfield narrow gauge line which like the Bright line branched off at Wangaratta.
It was important for the towns along the line carrying livestock and produce.
Another victim was the Maffra/Heyfield line branching off from Sale.
Certainly motor vehicles were a competitor by the 1920s but the growth of the state in itself meant plenty of traffic to go around. The shortage of fuel did postpone many cuts as the state was entirely unable to function without rail transport in the 30s and 40s. But there were two things that you didn't mention. The biggest cuts were in the early 50s. The theory is that as the branch lines were unprofitable cutting them would mean that trucks brought the traffic to the main lines. That didn't happen. So once the traffic was on the trucks it went the entire way. Hence the lesser main lines subsequently became unprofitable. The other big factor was that the high court banned states from charging tax to trucks using the roads if the truck had gone across the border.
So many trucks made a detour to cross the border to then exempt them from taxation. These factors made a big difference to the profitability of the rail network.
Me too a great introduction to the history.
Very good video i enjoy cant wait for next episode
A really good synopsis of the VR in your video👍 Today we can see what happens when governments don't support freight on rails. The roads are so broken up with all the heavy trucks carrying freight and grain that they have to spend even more $$ in repairing the roads. A drive along the Western Freeway to Ballarat is an easy example to see. In the future freight will have to go back on rails and some of those closed branch lines will re-open. Whittlesea, Healesville, Wonthaggi, Daylesford and obviously daily passenger trains to Mildura and Hamilton/Horsham. It's just a matter of time.
Answer to freight rail is interstate. Yes roads are getting knocked about and local council budgets cannot keep up however most rural roads were not made for heavy trucks. Once they are remade properly they hold up. Interesting that the Mooloort grain siding could be a rail head again but local farmers move grain with their own trucks to Geelong. I will say that trucks do provide more local jobs, cafes, service stations, tyre shops, mechanical repair plus Vicroads pulling them off the road and transport related industry benifits. Apart from BRW Bendigo broad gauge all wagon/ loco maintenance is in big cities. You can always divert traffic around road accident but rail derailment there is major log jams over weeks or months.
The North East Tasmanian railway was a good example. ANTasrail put a lot of money to ungrage a track designed for 300 ton shor trains, not 1500 tonne. It took up to a hour between Ledgerwood to Scottsdale by train (15 minutes by road) No way was the power milk factory sending their product by rail when truck to port was about 2 hours). However when the ANtasrail pulled the pin. The log truck and road haulage owners said great we can invest in trucks. Then all the saw mills closed, woodchip maket collapsed when the banks pulled out of the Gunns proposed pulp mill at Bell Bay. Local road contractors with debt with a truck and no income. Maybe establishing a tourist train combining a railtrail camping picnic ground between Lebrina and Wyena could help reboot local economy and community asset.?? Thinking outside the box.
The decline of the Victorian Railways commenced with the Bland Report in 1971/1972 which recommended deregulation of freight and wholesale closure of many minor branch lines.
possibly, but I would really say it began in the 1920s when cars started to become more widespread. The great depression and WW2 just delayed the process by 20 years.
I once saw a graph of VR wages and revenue which was parallel until 1970 and then wages suddenly shot up and then there was the Bland Report.
There was a lot of industrial action which occured regularly until the Kennett era which pushed wages up.
Can’t wait for the second ep. !
Excited for this !
Sorry to all those services that were cut by the New Deal For Country Passengers except for Donald because your train station was served by the Vinelander train to Mildura.
Decline of VR? It still exists today, its called V Line and its still running Australia's oldest, largest and busiest regional train network in the southern hemisphere so whats the problem?
Very very luckily the stuff linked the the Lonie report didn’t happen!
Yeah definitely that would have ruined Victorian rail
cant wait for it
Nice Vid!
Nice video
Better name for it was the loonie report
brb just getting popcorn
Ok you have 19 hours
Ima get popcorn in Northern Territory then come back and watch
@@MetroManMelbourne ok im back now, just in time
vicrail
Nice video! Also why did I get banned from the discord? I don’t remember doing anything breaking the rules
are you the user "wat the hail"?
@@MetroManMelbourne yeah
@@MetroManMelbourne what did I get banned for? The last thing I did was I entered the voice channel, and then the server disappeared. So I got banned just like that.
@@A_couple_of_cakepies I have sufficient evidence to believe you are under 13, and I believed you were already banned from my discord server, but when I found otherwise, I banned you. Feel free to join back when you turn 13.
@@MetroManMelbourne ok just a z1
train good
car bad
horse chaotic neutral
bus not as bad
truck worst
boat meh
planes confusing
Can agree