Freight advantages via the Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication

[Fares_Fair]

Hello all,

Does anybody know what, if any, were the freight advantages provided by the duplication of the North Coast Line between Caboolture and Beerburrum ?
Was there any increase in freight movements or time savings ?

Passengers certainly got none.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[#Metro]

From QR:
http://www.queenslandrail.com.au/NetworkServices/SEQIP/CompletedProjects/Pages/CabooltureBeerburrum.aspx

300 million dollars / 14 km (I have rounded these numbers up) = 21.5 million/km

The section of track between Caboolture and Landsborough was previously a single, winding track. All trains were forced to slow down in certain sections, restricting the capacity of rail services to and from the north. A study into options to upgrade the line commenced at the end of 2001 and community consultation on the proposed options finished in late 2005.

In 2007, construction began to straighten and duplicate the line between Caboolture and Beerburrum. The project involved building two new electrified tracks, four new rail bridges (at Lagoon Creek, Lagoon Creek North, Six Mile Creek and Beerburrum Creek), a new road-over-rail bridge at Mansfield Road, 5.3 kilometres of road realignments and two new stations, at Elimbah and Beerburrum.

The new line and stations opened on 14 April 2009 and minor works, including removal of the old railway line, were completed later in the year. The project delivered additional rail capacity along the busy north coast line and will cater for future growth in the Sunshine Coast region.

Project Fast Facts

Two 13.7 kilometres dual electrified tracks
Two new railway stations (Elimbah and Beerburrum)
Bi-directional signalling
4 rail bridges
A new road-over-rail bridge
5.3 kilometres of road realignments
Around 20 car parks at each station
Earthworks involving moving around 500,000 cubic metres of earth
Australia Zoo's Wildlife Warriors safely relocated 815 animals, including 76 amphibians, 320 mammals and 419 reptiles
The project created around 2230 jobs, directly and indirectly
More than 80% of people employed by the project were from the local community
Delivered By

The TrackStar Alliance partners include QR Network Pty Ltd, Thiess United Group (a joint venture of Thiess Pty Ltd and United Group Infrastructure), Aurecon Australia Pty Ltd (Connell Wagner) and Maunsell AECOM.

It was done for a very cheap price. NONE of our busways per kilometre are that cheap, and that is probably because land acquisition and service relocation is reduced (as it is in a rural setting).

[#Metro]

Its a project originally from the 1997 IRTP, completion by 2019 the website says. So 22 years in the making, and another 8 years or more to go.

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name/C/Caboolture-to-Landsborough-Rail-Upgrade-Study.aspx

[Stillwater]

NORTH COAST LINE (Brisbane-Cairns Corridor)

Road and rail transport activity is expected to grow strongly at around 2.5-3.0 per cent a year throughout the corridor. In the section of the corridor south of Childers, road traffic is expected to grow at the higher rate of around 3.5 per cent a year and double in 20 years. This growth will be fuelled by rapid population and economic growth and tourism. Road and rail are expected to continue to compete strongly for long-distance movement of general freight.

The corridor features strong population growth, along the relatively decentralised corridor, with 58 per cent of Queensland's population served by the corridor (two million people living outside of Brisbane).  The corridor is characterised by the movement of 14 million tonnes of freight a year.  Of this, about seven million tonnes is carried on the North Coast Railway Line.  Intermodal/containerised freight accounts for about six million tonnes of the total freight task and approximately 25-30 per cent of this is carried by rail.

Benefits would flow from faster travel time over the distance of additional track and also the extra capacity afforded by a duplicated line.  Real ebnefits for NCL would come from longer crossing loops, something that has been canvassed here already.

[Fares_Fair]

From QR:
http://www.queenslandrail.com.au/NetworkServices/SEQIP/CompletedProjects/Pages/CabooltureBeerburrum.aspx

300 million dollars / 14 km (I have rounded these numbers up) = 21.5 million/km

The section of track between Caboolture and Landsborough was previously a single, winding track. All trains were forced to slow down in certain sections, restricting the capacity of rail services to and from the north. A study into options to upgrade the line commenced at the end of 2001 and community consultation on the proposed options finished in late 2005.

In 2007, construction began to straighten and duplicate the line between Caboolture and Beerburrum. The project involved building two new electrified tracks, four new rail bridges (at Lagoon Creek, Lagoon Creek North, Six Mile Creek and Beerburrum Creek), a new road-over-rail bridge at Mansfield Road, 5.3 kilometres of road realignments and two new stations, at Elimbah and Beerburrum.

The new line and stations opened on 14 April 2009 and minor works, including removal of the old railway line, were completed later in the year. The project delivered additional rail capacity along the busy north coast line and will cater for future growth in the Sunshine Coast region.

Project Fast Facts

Two 13.7 kilometres dual electrified tracks
Two new railway stations (Elimbah and Beerburrum)
Bi-directional signalling
4 rail bridges
A new road-over-rail bridge
5.3 kilometres of road realignments
Around 20 car parks at each station
Earthworks involving moving around 500,000 cubic metres of earth
Australia Zoo's Wildlife Warriors safely relocated 815 animals, including 76 amphibians, 320 mammals and 419 reptiles
The project created around 2230 jobs, directly and indirectly
More than 80% of people employed by the project were from the local community
Delivered By

The TrackStar Alliance partners include QR Network Pty Ltd, Thiess United Group (a joint venture of Thiess Pty Ltd and United Group Infrastructure), Aurecon Australia Pty Ltd (Connell Wagner) and Maunsell AECOM.

It was done for a very cheap price. NONE of our busways per kilometre are that cheap, and that is probably because land acquisition and service relocation is reduced (as it is in a rural setting).

Hello,

Please refer to my original question above.
How has it delivered additional rail capacity ?
I haven't seen any on passenger services, we still wait at Glass House for the trains to come through on the single track.
Did it do so for freight ?

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[#Metro]

I'm not sure about freight, but for passenger that could be told easy by comparing timetables from pre-and post- duplication/
(and I am almost certain there is no difference, but someone should check).

So my answer would be that this is like half a tunnel or half a bridge. Helpful, but you really need the other half to get the benefits.

[Stillwater]

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/29c468e8-24a4-4a19-a639-6c7293f19ef5/pdf_icrcs_stage_3_technical_pre_feasibility_appendix_a_4_freight_needs.pdf

[somebody]

It has certainly increased freight capacity south of Nambour, just not by very much.  Before this duplication, there was a 9km section of single track.  Now, the longest section as far as Nambour for 7xxm freight trains is 7.2km.  Also ~1km freight trains previously had to run between Caboolture and Palmwoods before they could cross each other.  This is now Beerburrum and Palmwoods, also able to cross at Cooroy.  Not too sure about capacity north of Cooroy, but it's not that great if it isn't solving the limiting section.

[mufreight]

Effectively a transit time saving of some three minutes freight services but it has in effect given no increase in track capacity (train paths), the construction of a passing lane in the Eudlo - Palmwoods (realignment and duplication of this section would cut another two to three minutes off the transit times and give at least a 40% increase in track capacity between Caboolture and Nambour but even this benefit is mitigated by the length of the crossing loops to the north of Nambour which needs to see the stabling moved to Yandina and a second through platform at Nambour with a section of double track of at least two km to allow freight services of 1500m to pass and clear the Wombye - Nambour section without blocking either freight or passenger movements in the opposing direction.

[Stillwater]

Mufreight, how much land on the new alignment between Nambour and Woombye has QR acquired?  I know of moves to secure a 10m strip of the old mill site land for the new track and there was something in the SCD recently about a motor shop being bought up.

Nambour-Yandina straightening will be interesting, as no study been done on that, or has there been some investigations?

[mufreight]

The land acqusitions I do not know but I would assume that they would have been pretty well advanced as the Beerburrum - Landsbrough was to be a continuation of project on the completion of Caboolture - Berburrum, much of the additional land required for the realignment is (or was) already government owned land, ie. forestry reserve so there would be minimal disruption by resumptions, considerably less than what was resumed when the highway was realigned and made four lanes.

[somebody]

Another point is that freight can clear the tracks used by the Caboolture trains now without blocking opposing freight trains or Sunshine Coast/Traveltrain trains.  Not sure how much of an issue this one was.

I still think it should have gone as far as Glass House Mountains.

[Stillwater]

The 'dance of the trains' still occurs regularly at Nambour and Cooroy.

[Fares_Fair]

From the Inner City Rail Capacity Study (posted by Stillwater).

Freight conclusion
The best course of action for the future of freight is to increase the train consist lengths to
1500m. Doing so will alleviate the need to upgrade the inner city, and will allow the
current (desired) freight distribution to be maintained with operational viability.
• If 1500m trains cannot be accommodated, the freight services should be
spread apart where possible. This will avoid infrastructure upgrades to the
inner city, although under high growth the city will be at full capacity by 2026
• If the freight demand is extrapolated, further infrastructure in the inner city is
required, particularly for high growth, where the third track around Exhibition
loop is needed.
76
• The 5th track around Milton should be built to provide increased reliability
and flexibility when operating freight services and provides sufficient
capacity for a spread high-growth scenario for short trains.
• The freight curfew should remain, as running freight services during the
peak hour can only be achieved by extensive additional infrastructure, or by
removing passenger services causing unacceptable overloading

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[#Metro]

• The 5th track around Milton should be built to provide increased reliability
and flexibility when operating freight services and provides sufficient
capacity for a spread high-growth scenario for short trains.

A 5th Track! That is unheard of.
Where are these trains coming and going?
For the cost of that (and is there space?) may as well start thinking about a new dedicated freight line.

[mufreight]

• The 5th track around Milton should be built to provide increased reliability
and flexibility when operating freight services and provides sufficient
capacity for a spread high-growth scenario for short trains.

A 5th Track! That is unheard of.
Where are these trains coming and going?
For the cost of that (and is there space?) may as well start thinking about a new dedicated freight line.

There simply is not room for a fifth track through that location and the costs of providing such a line were properties to be resumed to build such a line and the high engineering costs associated with the actual construction of such a line render it both impractical and unafordable.  The additional track capacity will be more than provided by the construction of CRR which will provide additional train paths through the CBD enabling passenger services to be rerouted thus taking load off the bottleneck section of track between the Merivale Street tunnel portal and Countess Street where the freight services access the Exhibition loop.

[somebody]

There simply is not room for a fifth track through that location and the costs of providing such a line were properties to be resumed to build such a line and the high engineering costs associated with the actual construction of such a line render it both impractical and unafordable. 

I think this is probably right.  The question then becomes, why did the ICRCS think it was achievable to have a 5th track through Milton?

I also don't see the benefit in the Park Rd grade separation given that the majority of the trains would be going under the current station anyway.

[#Metro]

Maybe there IS room for a 5th track, but just not at that location.
What are the chances this "5th track" is actually the ICRCS 2 tunnel going from Toowong to CBD via West End and duplicating the metro alignment?

This is all fantasy. We have enough trouble funding CRR1, CRR 2 plus a new seperate metro is just pie-in-the-sky with the finances & pollies the way it is.

If it is going to cost that much, it is time to think of a separate freight line.

[colinw]

Please read the study before going off half-cocked. You're all over-reacting to a suggestion in a study, the results of which will probably never see the light of day anyway.

The proposed 5th track is actually rather short, being 650 metres of new track from Upper Roma St (just before where the lines from Merivale Bridge join the Ipswich line) crossing Countess St and joining the Exhibition line toward Normanby, or else continuing as the proposed 3rd track on the Exhibition Line.

It is not proposed to build a 5th track toward Milton, where there is clearly no room.

It should be noted that the ICRCS also clearly says that the 5th track is only needed post 2026, with a high growth of freight scenario, and with short length trains.  The need for it can be avoided or postponed significantly if the NCL is upgraded to permit 1500 metre trains, which is highly desirable for many other reasons.

From Section 1.4.19 of this document.

The supporting diagrams are in Appendix B and in Figure 1-16

1.4.19 Exhibition Loop Infrastructure

Engineering Assessment of the 5th Track around at the western end of Roma St
Station near Milton.

Construction of a 5th Track between Upper Roma St and Countess St requires the
construction of the track on the northern side of the four track corridor leading into
Roma St station. This arrangement is diagrammatically shown in Appendix B,
Section 4.1. An aerial view of the trackwork is shown on Figure 1-16.

The location for the 5th track is spatially constrained. The major impediment is the
development immediately to the north of the site and the remaining Victoria
Barracks and car-park. On the aerial image contained in Figure 1-16 the
excavation for the new building development can be seen and is hard up to the
boundary line for the fifth track. To cater for the spatial requirement for the 5th
track a combination of vertical retaining walls and underpinning of sections of the
new development may be required. On the aerial image a reasonable allowance of
5.5 metres from the fifth track centreline to the boundary has been allowed. This
would create a clear space of 4.5 to 5 metres to the face of any retaining wall or
underpinning structure. In circumstances where constraints are tight the QR
standards allow a reduction of clearance to 3 metres. Therefore there remains
some tolerance for detailed design solutions. Careful attention will need to be paid
for the relocation of electrification, signalling and cable routes along the boundary
as part of the fifth tracking works.

Detailed survey is required to confirm the definitive engineering requirements,
however the existing assessment indicates that it is likely that a fifth track can be
installed adjacent to the existing trackwork, albeit with some substantial and
complicated support works for the northern boundary. Further detailed assessment
would be required to ensure that adjustments in the alignment to the existing up
and down mains and up and down suburban tracks would not be required.
The scope of work consists of approximately 650 metres of non-electrified bidirectional
track, new cross-overs at the Milton end of the 5th track configuration
and new rail bridges to span Countess St and the Busway. An indicative cost
range for the work is anticipated to be $100 - $150 million based on 2008 dollars.
This high price is based on the likely requirement for numerous possessions and
out of hours working to allow the structural works to be carried out on the northern
boundary with the Barracks development site. There is no explicit allowance for
land acquisition costs in this price.

The need for this fifth track by 2026 is only created by a worst case scenario of
high freight demand (three times today's freight train volume in 2026) as opposed
to the medium demand case (twice today's freight train volume in 2026). It is
included in the 2026 Masterplan on this basis.

[mufreight]

Will be most interesting as to how they propose to get the additional track through under the Upper Roma Street / Petrie Terrace bridge without building a new bridge there and the flat junction would create conflicts with opposing moves between the mains and this relief road, operationaly another brain snap by some bureaucrat.
Far cheaper and more productive to build CRR now and a northern rail bypass to cater for freight at a later date if the freight flows from Brisbane are generated after the Inland Rail link with its SG connection to Gladstone is built.
More pertinent is the immediate need for track realignment and amplification between Beerburrum and Gympie North.

[Stillwater]

All of this seems to support the irrefutable case for 1500m freight trains and longer crossing loops on the SCL and NCL.  That's the better investment and it remains consistent with the eventual reinstatement of CRR.

[Fares_Fair]

... I'm working on it Stillwater.
Thanks for the reports you have tabled here at RBoT, I am making good use of them.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[somebody]

From the Inner City Rail Capacity Study (posted by Stillwater).

Freight conclusion
The best course of action for the future of freight is to increase the train consist lengths to
1500m. Doing so will alleviate the need to upgrade the inner city, and will allow the
current (desired) freight distribution to be maintained with operational viability.

I think the major reason for 1500m trains is that is the limit of what Acacia Ridge can handle, AIUI.  There are NO passing loops between Beerburrum and Bundaberg with a length between 1500m and 1800m.  Hopefully the new Bromelton terminal will be able to handle 1800m trains as there are several loops as far as Traveston which can handle such a length, including Palmwoods.  There would also need to be either loop lengthening or new loops for the new longer train standard.

A stop gap measure could be increased use of 1km trains, although this could already be being done.