Adelaide -- Darwin Railwy Bankruptcy News

At the right price, there's always a buyer.

http://www.westfaironline.com/fairfield ... brief.html

Apparently, Genesee and Wyoming thinks they can make a go of it. They've had fairly good success elsewhere. Their secret is in obtaining the rail assets cheaply.

I hope they continue running the passenger train.

This is the operating company , or does it own the railway(track ) as well .???
I would think this was always a long term investment , and the purchase price includes taking over a large amount of debt .

David Benton wrote:This is the operating company , or does it own the railway(track ) as well .???
I would think this was always a long term investment , and the purchase price includes taking over a large amount of debt .

FreightLink owns a 1,400-mile railroad that links the port of Darwin on Australia’s northern coast to a rail network running through the southern part of the country. FreightLink commenced operations in 2004, following the $1 billion construction of the northern portion of the rail line, and has been in receivership since November 2008. Genesee & Wyoming expects FreightLink to produce $120 million in revenue in the first year of operation under new ownership.

Doesn't the track belong to the Oz equivalent of Railtrack? If not, why not. It's a strategic national asset.

i agree it should be George , im just trying to remember the agreement it was built under . it seems incredible to expect a private company to finance building such a long line that had little traffic prospects in the short term .

David Benton wrote:i agree it should be George , im just trying to remember the agreement it was built under . it seems incredible to expect a private company to finance building such a long line that had little traffic prospects in the short term .

I suspect that what is bankrupt is a company with rights to use the track. I can't believe the track company is bankrupt.

The hoped for traffic is container traffic via Darwin. Will this ever develop? I have read elsewhere that shipping companies have reduced speeds at sea to save fuel. That might make a shorter route to Darwin more attractive than travelling to other ports.

See my earlier post about how I got a set of commemorative highball glasses with a map of the Adelaide-Darwin railway etched on each.

For the record, when contacted regarding the economics of container movement via the (then proposed) new rail line, I advised the Australians that container ships were unlikely to divert to Darwin to transship containers to rail, largely because once a box is on-board ship, extra miles are almost free. It's the handling that costs money.

"Slow steaming" is generally only used on the "backhaul" (emptier) side of the ship's journey. Ships with a full cargo of consumer electronics for, say, North America aren't going to dawdle along.

Other potential traffic on the new Australian rail line is minerals, and in case nobody noticed, the bottom has dropped out of the Baltic Dry Index due to an oversupply of ships designed for dry bulk transport (iron ore, coal, wheat, etc.). So while the railway may yet turn out to have been a good investment, it's going to be a few years before things turn around, I think.

Your earlier post was in another forum , i cant remember which one now .
here is a link to Wikipedia . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide%E ... in_railway .

It seems the new owners will get a 50 year lease .at a peppercorn rental ???

It seems the new owners will get a 50 year lease .at a peppercorn rental ???

Who do they pay it to?

As the southern part of Australia dries out, the wetter north is going to grow in importance.

to the corporation that owns the track , which in turn is jointly owned by the south Australia and northern territory state governments .