So trains indirectly subsidise the local main roads department. Because there s more road traffic there are more road accidents, and more people end up in hospital. This doesn t happen when you have a railway line, so indirectly, the railways subsidise the health care system. As soon as the railway stops running, the truck companies increase their rates because they have no competition. Goods delivered to the town become more expensive, profits made by people in the town get chewed up by increased freight charges, and so the town begins to wither on the vine.
Trains indirectly keep small towns alive.
All this ran through my head as we click-clacked our way down to Melbourne. Australia has about a million kilometres of roads, but only half of them are paved. So to be able to get reliably to some parts of Australia, you need a 4WD - and in some cases, if you don t have a 4WD, you simply can t get there. But in other parts of Australia, the railways play an important part in the mix that s needed to get people and goods from here to there and back again. Many of the countries in Europe, and America, are all expanding their rail networks - but in Australia, we re closing them down.