Tennant Creek to Mt Isa rail project

[ozbob]

ABC Rural --> Northern Territory Government to spend $1m exploring feasibility of Tennant Creek to Mt Isa rail project

The Northern Territory Government has committed $1 million to investigate the feasibility of building a rail line from Tennant Creek (NT) to Mt Isa (Qld).

The proposed rail line has been talked about for years and a feasibility study was one of the key recommendations in last year's Pivot North report.

NT chief minister Adam Giles said the 600 kilometre rail connection had the potential to deliver "enormous economic opportunities" to the nation.

"Linking northern and eastern markets would provide incentives to explorers and producers to invest in the NT, creating jobs and driving money into the economy," he said.

"This would be a long term project with a price tag in excess of a billion dollars, but its benefits would be exponential to the Territory and I'm keen to explore whether it's economically viable.

"This is a project of national significance and the Australian Government will be asked to match this funding in line with its commitment to developing the north."

Speaking to ABC Rural, the general manager of the northern Australia development office, Luke Bowen, said the new rain line was "a no-brainer".

"This line across to Mount Isa brings in some really new dynamics, so it brings in the whole eastern seaboard, it brings in the resources sector, gas reserves and some very large phosphate resources that lie across the Barkly," he said.

"Currently the Queenslanders are very concerned about their [Great Barrier] reef, so we can offer them an alternative to some of their outbound goods, and inbound goods, we could take some pressure off.

"It's a very logical progression and it's not just about goods in and out.

"It's also about national defence.

"It fits very well around moving equipment and people quickly and efficiently from the eastern seaboard into northern Australia.

"It stacks up and ticks a lot of boxes."

Mr Bowen said the feasibility study must be forward thinking and should take into account more than just immediate benefits.

The feasibility study is expected to take two years to complete.

[SurfRail]

Pity the gauges don't match.

[colinw]

Darn break-of-gauge, the eternal curse of Australian railways. 

Tennant Creek to Darwin (Berrimah) is 747 km by rail.  Tennant Creek to Mt Isa will be 600km give or take, so we're looking at a total of maybe 1350km by rail from Mt Isa to Darwin.

In comparison, Mt Isa to Townsville is about 976km (966 Mt Isa to Stuart, another 10km or so to the port).

So, unless the line to Darwin is significantly more efficient / lower cost to operate, there is unlikely to be much capture of traffic from Mt Isa and east to the port of Darwin.

What the line WILL allow, however, is development of mines west of Mt Isa (quite a few known deposits, Iron Ore, Copper, Phosphates).  Anything east of about the QLD / NT border will still be closer to Townsville.

The unknown is what through traffics might develop - phosphates to the NT, ore and containers out via Berrimah instead of Townsville?

So, what to do?

- 3'6" gauge to Tennant Creek, trans-ship there.  Nope, don't think so.
- 3.6" gauge to Tennant Creek, 747km of dual gauge to Darwin.  Would handle through traffic nicely, but seems a retrograde step to add so much narrow & dual gauge to the national system.
- SG to Mt Isa, trans-ship there.  Maybe, but makes through traffic expensive.
- SG to Mt Isa, dual gauge onward to mines (e.g. Phosphate Hill).  Again, prohibits effective through traffic, but might be sufficient for the kind of traffic on offer
- SG to Mt Isa, re-gauge the Mt Isa Line to Stuart, then dual gauge to the port creating a through standard Townsville to Mt Darwln line.  Probably the best option, but involves replacing or regauging a heck of a lot of rollingstock given the tonnages the Mt Isa line carries.

Or

- Give up, its all too hard.  This is Australia, so that is what we will do.

The best option probably depends on what the purpose of the line is.  Is it to develop through traffic to Darwin from the east coast, or is it to divert Mt Isa region minerals to Darwin, or is it to open up new mines in the NT & west of Mt Isa?

My "gut" says that the best options are to either re-gauge the Mt Isa line or do the dual gauge thing from Tennant Creek to Darwin.

[SurfRail]

Regauging the line is probably the way to go, combined with leasing it to the ARTC or somebody else to pay for it.

[Golliwog]

I agree regauging Mt Isa line is probably the best way forward.

I'm intrigued by the notion of shipping traffic through the reef being an issue and if this goes ahead if there will be any real shift in port traffic from Townsville to Darwin.

[pandmaster]

I wonder how expensive regauging the Mount Isa to Townsville line will be compared to building adjacent SG tracks on the existing alignment. It would be worth investigating.

I would like to see QR adopt a policy of only using dual-gauge and/or gauge convertible sleepers outside of suburban lines when replacing them. Even if it takes 50 years of very slow progress I think it would be worthwhile.

[SurfRail]

The alignment isn't what you'd call perfect.  If you were building any kind of new SG line, you would just get it right and close the old one entirely.  Basically the whole volume of freight carried empties out via Townsville for offshore anyway.

[colinw]

The problem with the Mt Isa line isn't so much the alignment, which is for the most part reasonable, but rather the nature of the soil it traverses.  Both the rail and adjacent highway have huge problems with formation sinking into water logged black soil, and things moving around further when it dries out again.

[ozbob]

Melbourne Age --> Study sets in train proposal for Northern Territory-Mount Isa rail link

[ozbob]

NT News --> Darwin railway corridor expands its reach

THE rail corridor between Darwin and the Queensland border has been extended to Townsville following the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Sydney on Friday.

Chief Minister Adam Giles and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk signed the MOU after the COAG meeting attended by all state and territory leaders and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Turnbull again failed to declare his support for Northern Territory statehood. However the Commonwealth did commit to a report, with the Territory Government, on statehood.

The report will be presented at the next COAG meeting on March 2016.

Statehood had a July 1, 2018, deadline set by COAG earlier this year.

It is the third time Mr Turnbull has failed to articulate direct support ...

[verbatim9]

Standard guage to Mount Isa no doubt. Then dual guage track to the coast (Townsville) ? Is this mainly for mineral freight or food and manufactured goods?