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>> I think your example shows the silliness of the argument that you and ABL are
>> attempting to run. Goulburn to Yass is a distance of about 85km via the Hume,
>> whereas it is 140km via the Barton and Federal Highways. It is a nonsense to
>> suggest that the owner of the latter could pose any serious competitive
>> pressure on the owner of the former. No, you are merely choosing to misinterpret the argument.
- The existence of the Barton and Federal highways put a fundamental upper
bound on the monopoly value of the Hume from Yass to Goulburn (You can put
this in dollar terms by calculating petrol, running costs and average wages).
- The Barton and Federal highways are only one such example of an alternative
route. There are a myriad of little roads in that area, many which could be
used immediately, and many which could be upgraded very cheaply. Bear in mind
that the pre-bypassed roads for Yass, Goulburn and Gunning are still in place
too, so much of the work is already done.
There are roads which do have a significant monopoly value (The Clyde
Mountain road comes to mind), but they are few and far between. Your example of
the Hume is a very poor one indeed. Especially as motorists going from Canberra
to Melbourne would prefer to avoid the Hume until they got to Albury (now
there's a road building opportunity, and they would pick up some of the Sydney
to Melbourne traffic too - hence bypassing (you guessed it) the Goulburn to
Yass stretch).
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