Quote:
Originally Posted by jpd80
An issue with Inland Rail is how many trucks a single train can take off the highways, not all of them but a significant number (Adelaide-Darwin), especially those double stack container trains, every carriage is a B Double less on the road.
Work on Inland rail is continuing, but is broken into local projects so you won’t see major announcements.
AFAIK, a major part has been approved in NSW, the company I work for has tendered for for inspection work on rail joins. Also progressing in Queensland with a tunnel going through the range at Toowoomba and a new high level link to existing QR corridor at Helidon, new tunnel between Laidley and Grandchester.
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Living 100ft away from the inland rail route I watch trains everyday go past. There isn't enough freight to complete a full train at present.
I see the "One Steel" train from the Gong pass here everyday on the way to Melbourne, it is half full and willl runback the next morning empty.
Biggest problem with the IRR is it should have gone up through Shepparton, straight through towards Echuca and service the farming districts of inland NSW then onto QLD.
The existing route needs to many modifications to the existing NE rail corridor here while it competes with The Hume Hwy and has to give up priority to passenger services along the same tracks. It will never be competetive with road freight taking to long to get anywhere.
Adelaide to Darwin has no existing bridges to deal with either. Like anything we do here these days, it turns into one big budget cut compromise, just look at NBN.
I would love to know how quickly one of the Janus battery banks takes to charge. Seems to me they will run out of available charging quicker than they can swap over banks.
Me thinks diesel will be around for a long time yet. We have used (and new crop) veggie oil everywhere in this country and the ability to produce it in large volumes without more modifications to existing heavy vehicles, surely this as a bio fuel mix is a cleaner better option until then.