(Freight and Passenger) Rail Motorway Linking Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide by Peter Egan
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Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 1 Eastern Australia (freight and passenger) Rail Motorway linking Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide By Peter Egan 1. ROUTE SELECTION page 2 2. TRACK SPECIFICATION 18 3. MARKETS 20 4. SERVICE EXAMPLES 34 ‘Rail motorway’ concept "Motorway", in this context, means the railway is fully grade separated, does not pass through any towns, cities and villages, and links to existing railways. Service points are off the mainline. Trains do not stop on the main line. Freight will move at speeds between 80kmh and 160kmh, with passenger trains able to operate at 200 kmh. A key target is an intercity freight journey faster than by road, and a passenger journey twice as fast as a road journey. The aim of double-track and passenger services is regional development. Thus, the motorway route is selected to pass near, but not through, regional cities and towns – see route maps on the following pages. Rail "motorway" maximises the capability of "conventional" railway that we know well in Australia. It has cost structures similar to mining railways. It is not high-speed rail, it serves a different market. However, a rail "motorway" will build a market for HSR - likely for the "regional development" model rather than the "airline competition" model studied by the Commonwealth. Typical rail motorway infrastructure (overhead power is not end-to-end) Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 2 Section 1 – Rail Motorway route selection The current rail routes between our major cites is the equivalent of a narrow country lane. That the lane passes through every town and village along the route adds to infrastructure and maintenance costs. The east coast of Australia is very rugged - construction costs for rail line of appropriate speed are extremely high. Appendix 1 shows the impact of the ruggedness on the NSW North Coast line and its unsuitability for a significant performance upgrade. To achieve significantly shorter intercity journey times by rail at reasonable cost requires an inland route. The proposed route between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne is set out in Appendix C. The first phase of the rail ‘motorway’ route is a 1710 km path between the container ports of Melbourne and Brisbane and a 210 km spur from Blayney to Port Botany (Sydney). 160 km of the 1920 km is existing track or existing rail corridor. The maps also show the route relative to Commonwealth’s lower cost, lower capability route that makes use of existing infrastructure. Presently, most freight between the east coast and Western Australia goes via the Sydney-Crystal Brook (180 km north of Adelaide) rail line, or the Melbourne-Adelaide line, and then via the ARTC and WA line to Perth. A second phase of the south east railway could be upgrading the Melbourne-Adelaide-Port Augusta Line to double-track 160 km/h standard. A third phase could be a new cyclone resistant standard gauge double-track railway from Brisbane to Cairns. The current route is too close to the coast in many places and prone to washouts and flooding. Queensland is more dependent on general freight rail services than the other states. It is proposed that the track base be prepared for 4 tracks and a maintenance vehicle path. This will require a track base platform around 25 metres wide. It is also proposed that the corridor contain space for utilities such as telecom ducts and electricity cables. The aim being to extract the most value from the corridor. The route between Melbourne and Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane will be shorter than the current route, while the Sydney-Brisbane route will be longer. As the corridor will be used for at least 100 years, it is proposed that it be suitable for 160 km/h freight trains with a general maximum of 1% grade as grade has a significant impact on journey time. In mountainous terrain, grades up to 2% will be acceptable. The route between Brisbane and Toowoomba will likely use a 200 kmh corridor reserved by the QLD government for rail purposes. The route would have the sidings listed in Table 2 for pick-up and set-down of cars and trucks. It is proposed the track corridor be a space 10 metres high by 30 metres wide to preserve vertical space for track ballast, track, trains and overhead electric power cables and, horizontally, for 4 tracks with 6 metres separation for ‘F’ plate loads (see Appendix D for load diagrams) and special cargos upto 5 metres wide. Space will be required in the track corridor for an access road, signalling, communications, high voltage power for possible future electrification, and corridor customers such as intercity communications cables and perhaps an underground gas pipeline. Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 3 Proposed rail motorway route in relation to the Inland Rail study area Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 4 Proposed rail motorway in relation to the Inland Rail Project Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 5 Indicative Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne 200 km/h rail motorway Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 6 Route includes a 46 km tunnel from Emu Heights to Hartley Vale via Springwood and Blackheath. The tunnel grade will be close to 1.67% (1 in 60). Underground passenger rail stations could be built at Springwood and Blackheath to serve the Blue Mountains. The stations would be respectively 190 metres and 420 metres below ground level and accessed by large lifts. Construction access would be provided at the stations. Indicative 210 km Blayney-Port Botany route The route utilizes much of the existing rail corridor. Indicative 970 km Port Augusta-South Dynon (Melbourne) rail motorway Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 7 Rail motorway (red) and Inland Rail options – Brisbane-Toowoomba Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 8 Rail motorway (red) and Inland Rail options – Moree-Dubbo Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 9 Rail motorway (red) and Inland Rail options – Young-Seymour Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 10 Indicative East Australia rail ‘motorway’ relative to Federal electorates Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 11 Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne route details Location Cumulative Existing Corridor New Corridor Journey time distance sector distance sector distance hrs @100kmh km km km Brisbane-Blayney-Melbourne Brisbane Port 0 Acacia Ridge IMT 33 33 Kagaru 66 33 Willowbank (near drag strip) 102 36 Laidley 130 28 Toowoomba Range tunnel portal 178 48 Toowoomba tunnel 183 5 (tunnel) QLD border 382 199 QLD total 66 321 387 Pallamallawa (Moree) 484 102 Narrabri – east 585 101 Dubbo – east via Boggabri 875 290 via Baradine 275 Orange – west 1005 130 Blayney junction 1030 0 25 648 (QLD border) Cowra – west 1095 65 Temora jctn – well east 1195 100 Junee – west junction 1248 53 Wagga Wagga – west jctn 1286 38 NSW border 1402 116 West NSW total 0 1020 1020 Wodonga – west junction 1406 4 Shepparton – east jctn 1526 120 Seymour – west 1600 74 Kilmore – west 1633 33 Wallan (junction existing) 1652 19 Cragieburn 1672 20 Somerton terminals 1676 4 South Dynon IMT 1705 29 675 (Blayney jcn) (Melbourne port) VIC total 53 250 303 Sydney-Blayney Port Botany 0 Enfield IMT 8 8 Leightonfield Station 28 20 Eastern Creek IMT (prop) 47 19 Western Line (Ropes Creek) 52 5 Western Line (Mulgoa Rd) 62 10 Emu Heights tunnel portal 66 4 (Nepean Rr floodplain viaduct) Wedmore Rd Springwood Station 75 9 (tunnel) Blackheath Station 102 27 (tunnel) Little Hartley tunnel portal 111 10 (tunnel) (46 km tunnel) Sodwalls loop junctions 133 22 Blayney junction 211 78 Sydney-Blayney total 38 173 211 NSW total 38 1193 1231 QLD-NSW-VIC total 157 1764 1921 Port Brisbane – Port Botany 104 1133 1237 13 hrs Port Brisbane – South Dynon IMT 119 1591 1710 18 hrs Port Botany –South Dynon IMT 91 795 886 9.5 hrs Acacia Ridge IMT – Enfield IMT 63 1133 1196 12.5 hrs South Dynon IMT – Enfield IMT 83 795 878 9.2 hrs Acacia Ridge IMT – Eastern Ck IMT 43 1114 1157 11.5 hrs Acacia Ridge IMT – Somerton IMT 62 1591 1653 16.5 hrs Somerton IMT – Eastern Ck IMT 34 776 810 8.0 hrs Willowbank IMT – Eastern Ck IMT 10 1078 1088 11 hrs Willowbank IMT – Somerton IMT 24 1555 1579 16 hrs Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 12 2015-2024 Sydney Metropolitan Freight Strategy projects overview and the ‘rail motorway’ Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 13 Sydney Rail Freight Corridors with Rail Motorway corridor in red Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 14 Sydney freight activity precincts with rail motorway marked in red Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 15 Victorian and Queensland rail freight infrastructure Victorian rail freight infrastructure upgrade and Rail Motorway Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 16 Melbourne – national rail network lines Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 17 Brisbane – national rail network lines Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 18 Section 2 – Rail motorway track specification Inland rail specification modified for Rail Motorway (red changes) Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 19 The proposed corridor clear of infrastructure is 10 metres high by 30 metres wide to allow for an eventual 4 tracks, overhead electrification infrastructure, and rails, sleepers and ballast. The rail motorway track centreline separation is 6 metres, with 3 metres from centreline side clearance to allow specialist cargo loads 5 metres wide. The corridor also include space for a maintenance vehicle path and space for underground utilities such as intercity telecom mains and gas pipes. Plate ‘F’ vehicle – largest class standardised – suitable for double-stacked containers Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 20 Section 3 - Markets Existing Coast freight flows Rail has virtually all the bulk commodity cargos – coal, other minerals and grain. It has a small share of palletised and container cargo between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 21 Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 22 This diagram gives a visual indication of the Melbourne-Brisbane freight market served by the Newel Hwy relative to freight flows to and from Sydney Eastern Australia Rail Motorway 23 This map from TfNSW shows the influence of state capitals on NSW.