While there are plenty of freight trains moving between the east and west coasts, the track needs to be upgraded to withstand 100-year weather events, as evidenced by the closure of Trans-Australian Railway line for almost a month in 2022 due to flood damage, which impacted 300 km of track near Tarcoola, South Australia.
Which states are getting it right?
The Queensland Rail Mainline Upgrades between Brisbane and Cairns – undertaken during the 1990s – provides an apt blueprint of what needs to take place to improve the east coast rail network.
The upgrade entailed 200 km of track rebuilt to modern engineering standards, which included track straightening, and easing grades and curves to accommodate faster and heavier freight trains – allowing the weight of load behind a locomotive to increase from 750 t to 1500 t.
“That helped to keep Brisbane to Cairns freight on rail, increasing the modal share on that corridor at a time when the Sydney to Melbourne corridor was losing freight from rail to road,” Laird said.
This upgrade was also delivered at a modest cost, averaging $1.3 million / km, which Laird acknowledges would be significantly higher today. But if the same scope of work was completed between Sydney and Melbourne, the benefits would outweigh the costs.
“If we were to upgrade the rail lines on a modest amount compared with our highway investments, this would not only make freight trains quicker, they’d use appreciably less fuel,” he said. “Then we could divert some freight from road to rail.”
Meanwhile, over in the west, the four iron ore rail lines are top notch – with axle nodes, energy efficiency and enhanced productivity – moving nearly 900 million t annually.
“The Western Australian government is also taking very definite steps to improve the efficiency of rail freight,” Laird said.
Furthermore, an incentive system has meant that the Fremantle Port has the highest percentage of containers on the road.
“For every eligible container brought to the Fremantle Port by rail, there is a $50 payment,” he said.