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The Special Commission on Railways will report to the Federal Transport Commission over the next few weeks on railway renewal. The main motivation for the commission is the need to renew the IC2000 stock which serves the 'Spine Route' mainline routes between the nation's three main urban areas and Ariannica National Railways (ANR) have been considering potential replacement options. The Commission considered how railways on the Spine Route could continue to compete with air travel and brought together recent engineering and feasibility reports within the last 10 years as well as regional and local travel.

Competition with Air
Reports considered competition between rail and air.

Travel times between Haverton and Yaquima city centres needed to be 5 hours or less to compete with air travel accounting for travel to the airport, security, waiting, flying, and travel from destination airport. Current travel times at 4hr 50m is only just within this limit.

Between Yaquima and Devanbouve, current travel times are 4hr an hour, around 30mins less than the total air travel time.

Opportunities for journey time improvement
Studies from the last 10 years had usually concluded that opportunities for cost effective-local improvements to line speeds on the Spine Route are largely exhausted. Options to increase line speeds to consistent 220kph are being considered including diversion routes and tilting trains. 220kph is the point at which conventional mixed traffic railways generally 'top-out' and before dedicated, closed system, true-high speed rail is required within Ariannica's specific system (globally most mixed-traffic conventional track is limited to 200kph). However research into travellers preferences suggested that in the Spine Route's case travel time may not be as important as conventionally thought.

Passenger Surveys and Research
Surveys of passengers found that the travel time was not generally a big issue. Passengers Priorities were:

• Reliability - 91% of passengers

• Comfort and availability of seating - 86%

• Price - 62%

• On-board facilities - 58%

• Luggage allowance - 42%

• Family facilities - 28%.
  

Focus groups of passengers showed that the overall comfort, convenience and luggage allowance gave the train the edge over air even in scenarios where is took longer by up to a fifth, as long as the price was broadly comparable.

Business passengers were even more positive noting that train time was productive and relaxing compared to air travel which was considered a 'waste of time'. The availability of sockets, tables, wifi, and refreshments being essential to business travellers. Wifi coverage is currently patchy.

Families appreciated the dedicated family cars with their on-board play areas, and changing and warming stations.

Regional and Secondary Routes - Indegenous Voices
The decline of regional and secondary routes has largely been reversed in the southern 4 states with passenger volumes increasing modestly on branch and local lines. Regional connections such as the Southern Mainline have seen dramatic increases to passenger numbers.

In the far north, the report suggests that although a decision for politicians, that it is generally accepted that lines will always require subsidy, but that these lines are critical to the national infrastructure and local communities including many indigenous and native peoples, as well a providing year round transport for oil and mining equipment and personnel.

Under the Indegenous Rights Act 1997, recognised indegenous tribes must be consulted on any plans. Tribes' echoed the sentiment that rural rail was critical to their communities, saying that they would strongly oppose any closures or cut backs to services. Given the politics of recent decades this effectively kills any plans ANR may have had to close railways in the far east or north.

The Federal Transport Committee will deliberate on the reports, consult stakeholders and present a draft strategy to Parliament.