Makes it easier for us!
Just thought I'd give a brief history or railway names in Australia.
Before 1901, Australia was 6 separate colonies of the British Empire. Each governed separately, and controlled by the Poms, with the British Monarch as Head of State of each colony. The British Monarchs of the time, apponited a "Governor" of each colony as The Monarch's representative. The British Monarch appointing the Governor of each state still exists today.
The very early railways were "railway companies", however this did not last very long with each colony's government "nationalising" the railways and each colony's government ran the railways of each colony. Each colony also chose it's own guage as well. So each railway was know by the name of the colony eg. New South Wales Government Railways, or Victorian Railways, Queensland Government Railways etc. So there were effectively only 6 railway "companies" (government owned and run).
Along came 1901 and "Federation", when the 6 colonies formed the country of "Australia". Still a British colony, however amalgamated into one colony. The Head of State (Governor General) still being appointed by the British Monarch (and this still exists today too). Around 1920/30 the east/west link (Adelaide/Perth) was taken over by the Federal Government, hence the "Commonwealth Railways" came into existence. The concept of separate railway still existed, and no rollingstock/locos crossed into the other's territory. Mainly becuase of the change of guage at the state borders. This system existed until the mid 60's, when "standard" guage became accepted as a national guage, and the line for the NSW border to Melbourne was upgraded to "dual" guage (standard and broad) to allow straight through running from Sydney to Melbourne. Only rollingstock went all the way through, with loco/crew changes at the borders.
Around the late 70's early 80's some of the state governments split the operations into freight and passengers and had a namechange from the "government railways" hence "Staterail" (NSW), V/Line (Victoria etc) Westrail (Western Australia). Still, only 7 railways overall, (well 6 really) as they closed the whole railway system in Tasmania.
The late 80's saw a further slit in operations into freight, country passengers and suburban passengers, and major government investment in the railways to bring them up to scratch (still running 70 year old passenger suburban stock etc).
The late 80's early 90's also saw some privatisation of some aspects of the railways of each state. The rollingstock was sold off (in Victoria, to a Dutch company) and leased back by the Government. But still, no new names for the railways.
A bit later in the 80's saw some of the long distance (interstate) freight operation sold off and some of the "railway companies" were formed. (wholly owned by the government, or "joint ventures") with the governments holding the controlling interest.
Names such as "Freight Australia" and "Great Southern Railiway" and "FreightCorp" (NSW) came into exisitence. Most of these operations were "joint operations" between the state governments, so nothing new was implemented, just the creation of a few more railroad "entities". These "entities" were just the rollingstock/locos, not the tracks themselves, which have now been sold off to "holding/joint venture" companies. One or two disused lines around the country have been reopened in the last few years and prvate companies are now running some passenger services, with leased rollingstock from the state governments. West Coast Railway in Vctoria is an example of this.
So as you can see, I come from a completely different background of railway history and roadnames, and still, there would be no more that half a dozen or so "railway companies" in Australia, with the state governments holding the major interests. And also none of the "West East & North" railroad, or "Up Down and Sideways" railroad names.
Click
here to see who runs what and where, including ALL timetables, rollingstock and roadnames, logo's and liveries.
Hope this makes interesting reading
