The first railway in this country was right here in Melbourne, between Melbourne town (now our CBD) and Sandridge (now a suburb called Port Melbourne). It was built to the track gauge mentioned above, also the track gauge used in Ireland.
New South Wales originally agreed to build to this gauge too but changed their mind not long before we started construction.
The idea is to imagine that New South Wales and Victoria both build to the gauge on which they originally agreed.
Let's look at the situation in our timeline (O.T.L). We have standard gauge interstate tracks right across the continent. And in all mainland states except New South Wales, there is some dual gauge track. In Victoria and South Australia, this is between two gauges differing by more than the width of the railhead, but less that the total width of standard rails. This means narrow footed rails on the dual gauge side. Additionally, it is not allowed where the speed limit is greater than 80km/h.
At the beginning of 1995, trains from Melbourne to Adelaide ran on the very same track as the train carrying that video camera, and train from Adelaide back to Melbourne, of course, used the track next to it. Not so long later, the Melbourne-Adelaide line was shut down for conversion to standard gauge.
Regional railways in South Australia have mostly been converted to standard gauge. Some regional railways in Victoria have also been converted, but only if trains on them don't share tracks with the Melbourne suburban ones. Both Melbourne and Adelaide have large, interconnected suburban rail networks with broad gauge track and it seems nearly impossible to close parts of these networks for conversion while others remain open. Many sections of track on these networks are each shared by two, or sometimes more than two routes, and there are some where dual gauge track is simply not feasible.
If we standardised on 5'3'', there would never have been a need for dual gauge track. I would guess the added cost of broad gauge in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia would have paled in insignificance compared to the cost of dual gauge track and the cost and inconvenience of changing the gauge of many regional lines, at least in Victoria and South Australia.
New South Wales originally agreed to build to this gauge too but changed their mind not long before we started construction.
The idea is to imagine that New South Wales and Victoria both build to the gauge on which they originally agreed.
Let's look at the situation in our timeline (O.T.L). We have standard gauge interstate tracks right across the continent. And in all mainland states except New South Wales, there is some dual gauge track. In Victoria and South Australia, this is between two gauges differing by more than the width of the railhead, but less that the total width of standard rails. This means narrow footed rails on the dual gauge side. Additionally, it is not allowed where the speed limit is greater than 80km/h.
At the beginning of 1995, trains from Melbourne to Adelaide ran on the very same track as the train carrying that video camera, and train from Adelaide back to Melbourne, of course, used the track next to it. Not so long later, the Melbourne-Adelaide line was shut down for conversion to standard gauge.
Regional railways in South Australia have mostly been converted to standard gauge. Some regional railways in Victoria have also been converted, but only if trains on them don't share tracks with the Melbourne suburban ones. Both Melbourne and Adelaide have large, interconnected suburban rail networks with broad gauge track and it seems nearly impossible to close parts of these networks for conversion while others remain open. Many sections of track on these networks are each shared by two, or sometimes more than two routes, and there are some where dual gauge track is simply not feasible.
If we standardised on 5'3'', there would never have been a need for dual gauge track. I would guess the added cost of broad gauge in New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia would have paled in insignificance compared to the cost of dual gauge track and the cost and inconvenience of changing the gauge of many regional lines, at least in Victoria and South Australia.
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