If I may be so bold as to offer differ- ent overview of what might be achieved to re-building through Cowra-Carcoar to Blayney, you might consider the advantag- es of building Harden-Cowra-Canowindra- Eugowra to Parkes. The attached Google Earth image picks out the old right-of-way that ran to Eugowra, where the old proposi- tion of extending on to Forbes or Parkes should be resurrected with the extension going to the main East-West line to pick up the freight gateway to the west and still be able to feed into the east to Sydney. One of the barriers to double deck container traf- fic would be the tunnel at Carcoar whereas the run through to Parkes is over reasona- bly flat land without such barriers. Feeding to the west will also allow a direct link into the mooted inland line from Melbourne to Brisbane whatever its eventual path where a transit to Blayney from the south through Cowra would have to be headed west at Blayney to get to the north-south inland line. It seems reasonable to assume that Parkes will be the rail hub inter-linking all these services so the produce of Murray- Goulburn and actual Goulburn area would feed into the hub distributor along with the Weddin (Young/Cowra) etc.
My past experience with Calibre and rail projects says conservatively that about AUD2.5million per kilometer could be a reasonable budget target for either refur- bishment or building on this concept.
Regards Robert Sherwood Perth, Western Australia
