This weekend see 2 major changes for the NEW South Wales Network. ARTC (Australian Rail Track Corporation) take over the lease of all country areas of NSW, this includes the Hunter Valley area which is the most profitable area for rail due to high coal haulage. ARTC will take over all management of infrastructure although infrastructure workers will be seconded from RIC (Country Rail Infrastructure Corporation). ARTC is a Federal Government Corporation taking over running of the NSW system from the State Government. Part of the lease arrangement includes an investment of approx $1 Billion dollars to provide a dedicated freight netwrok across the east coast of Australia. 2. With the majority of NSW being leased by ARTC this leaves NSW responsible for only the metropolitan area of the network. Due to this State Rail and RIC merge this weekend to form the newly created RailCorp. Country RIC has been created to service ARTC's needs in country areas. Due to these changes approx 600 country staff have been either made redundant or redeployed to other areas. It will be interesting to see how these changes will affect the rail network of NSW.
Interesting Paul,I hope this means more contract work for the earthmoving side of things ,in other words more work for me!
Hauling coal? Is coal mined in NSW or is it all imported? Does this affect City Rail, or is that exclusively Sydney? Let's all make some money on this!!
And with only the metropolitan side of things to control, the State Govt STILL can't make the trains run on time! Let's hope that the federal govt has more luck with the freighters....
Paul- What would these be? New construction? Or upgrading of existing lines? Is there a web site where we can follow some of the news and events? Boxcab E50
Here is a link to the clearways project, it includes $1.6 billion AUs in major infrastructure projects to seperate the major lines of the network. Clearways This map shows an overall view of the projects Most of the work will be Project Managed by a new Governemnt Corporation started to deliver infrastructure projects Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation ARTC will be spending a further $billion in buiding a new freight line from Sydney's south west to the port of Botany. [ 04. September 2004, 22:09: Message edited by: Colonel ]
Woohooo,get a brand new excavator in a week or so,should be plenty of work for it then with a little luck!Plenty of pic's coming...
Coal is mined in NSW in 2 major areas 1) The Hunter Valley this area is to the northwest of Newcastle which is a provicial city 90miles to the north of Sydney. I am told it is a low sulphur high Btu coal similar to Powder River and therfore good for Power generation (which most electricity in NSW is) it is exported to Japan mostly (but I have also read that we are now exporting to California) The area between Sandgate and Maitland provide for an intense (By Aust standards) scene of rail action with 4 tracks (up and down main and up and down coal) with coal, wheat, containers, and local passenger services and Countrylink XPT's and Explorers. On a total train count an average of 40 trains a day The other area is the western coal fields located just west of the Blue Mountains. This is export coal which is railed to Port Kembla (via Sydney) located on the south coast of Sydney. This is a small operation approx 4-5 trains a day depending on ship loading and CityRail cerfew's on freight operations. These are also some smaller mines located on the south coast - one at Coal Cliff used for Cokeing coal (was rail then road, then thanks to almost permanent road closure rail in containers) and Wongawilli which is owned by BHP or Bluescope as I believe it is now called for steel making operations In regards to your second question. the ARTC deal only includes non-electrified lines, but does not include the Illawarra (sth coast of Sydney) or seasonal wheat branch lines in the far west. So the main west to Lithgow, the Main north to Newcastle and the south coast to the end at Bomaderry. RIC control on the Main south will end at Glenlee Jcnt - ARTC intends to build a separate line for freight from south of Macarthur to link up with the existing refuge between Ingleburn and Glenfield then on to Sefton Pk Jcnt via Leightonfield which will be grade separated. Oh well that's quite a mouthful,...hope it's meaningful if not...ask more questions
