Volcano ash from Chile

[ozbob]

Might be a few more for the XPT!

Major disruptions down south with volcano ash drifting in from Chile.

Courier Mail -->  Qantas, Jetstar flights cancelled as volcano ash from Chile reaches NZ and Australia; Virgin and Air NZ still flying

Brisbanetimes --> Ash sparks travel chaos

Flow on effects for many flights around Australia and global.

Bring back the Brisbane Limited!!   

[ozbob]

andrew_lund

Qantas departures board at Melbourne Airport. #volcano #chaos http://twitpic.com/5afq5x
1 hour ago

[ozbob]

Talking of XPTs  some interesting reading click --> here!

[ozbob]

This would be handy as well ..


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/SoP70s.jpg/800px-SoP70s.jpg

Spirit of Progress, hauled by Commonwealth Railways GM class locomotives Photograph from Mark Bau's victorianrailways.net

[frereOP]

Might be a few more for the XPT!

Major disruptions down south with volcano ash drifting in from Chile.

Courier Mail -->  Qantas, Jetstar flights cancelled as volcano ash from Chile reaches NZ and Australia; Virgin and Air NZ still flying

Brisbanetimes --> Ash sparks travel chaos

Flow on effects for many flights around Australia and global.

Bring back the Brisbane Limited!!   

So what I want to know is what is causing the ash to travel east-west against the Coriolus effect?  Something is not right here.

[ozbob]

zzzzzzzzzzz Trains are being marshalled at Thirlmere.  Retired diesel electric veterans are being fuelled,  and some steam locomotives are being provisioned with coal and water.  Some immaculate carriages from the Southern Aurora, the Spirit of Progress, the Intercapital Daylight are being given a quick clean and provision.  Yes, tomorrow morning extra trains will be running to Melbourne from Central Station Sydney ...   zzzzzzzzzz  

[ozbob]

Not sure how the ash gets here, but I think it is high altitude so maybe the winds push it?

[ButFli]

The ash has travelled east. It took the long way around.

[ozbob]

From the ABC News click here!

More flights cancelled in 'exceptional' ash event

More flights cancelled in 'exceptional' ash event

Updated 25 minutes ago

Strong winds have carried the ash some 9,400 kilometres since Chile's Puyehue volcano erupted more than a week ago. (AFP: Claudio Santana)

A volcanic ash plume from Chile making its way across the Pacific is wreaking havoc on Australian airways, forcing a number of carriers to cancel all services.

Thousands of travellers have been left stranded in Australia and New Zealand, with hundreds of domestic and international flights in and out of Australia cancelled.

Tiger Airways and Virgin Australia are the latest airlines to suspend services until further notice. Tiger has suspended all Australian services and Virgin has grounded flights in and out of Melbourne.

Qantas and Jetstar expect about 16,000 passengers will be affected with their cancellation of all flights in and out of Melbourne and Tasmania, flights between Sydney and the Gold Coast and Australia and New Zealand.

Passengers at Hobart Airport have told the ABC they may have to wait several days for another flight.

"We weren't advised by email or phone we've got two phones, no advice," said Gold Coast tourist Warren Spence, who had his Jetstar flight out of Hobart cancelled this morning.

"We've got a hire car, we've got to book in a motel for maybe one or two days. We've got a dog in kennels, I've got surgery on Wednesday."

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth says it is unclear when flights will resume.

"At this stage it's safety first and safety before schedule," she said.

Ms Wirth says Qantas staff are trying to determine what effect the ash has on aircraft.

"We believe it's absolutely prudent and the right thing to do to suspend operations until we have more details on the density of the cloud and the impact this will have," she said.

She says Qantas will alert passengers if flights tomorrow will be affected.

"We will be providing an update throughout the day to different passengers travelling tomorrow but at this stage it is only flights during today that have been impacted," she said.

Vanessa Regan from Tiger Airways says it is hard to say when the ash will clear enough for flights to resume.

"We will continue to monitor the situation overnight, we'll be updating passengers as soon as we can from very early in the morning tomorrow, regarding all of our flights scheduled to operate tomorrow," she said.

"This is a natural disaster so this situation is obviously out of our control."

Air New Zealand has not cancelled any flights at this stage, but will fly at lower altitudes to avoid the ash.

'Exceptional event'

Strong winds have carried the ash some 9,400 kilometres since Chile's Puyehue volcano erupted more than a week ago.

The plume of ash is now covering New Zealand's South Island and parts of Tasmania.

It is moving towards New Zealand's North Island and experts say it could even reach the south coast of Victoria, southern New South Wales and the ACT as it diffuses.

Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre spokesman Andrew Tupper says it is an "exceptional event".

"It's got a very strong satellite signal and it's right up there with the big, big eruption clouds," he said.

"It will keep going. I would suspect it will do a loop of the globe.

"The last time we saw anything like it was 20 years ago with another eruption from South America but this is actually a larger ash cloud. It's pretty major."

Airservices Australia says the volcanic plume could affect air travel for the next few days.

No ferries

Meanwhile, stranded airline passengers wanting to cross Bass Strait by ferry will not have any luck.

The Spirit of Tasmania has no available services either way between Devonport and Melbourne for two nights.

The ferry's bookings office has been inundated with calls after Jetstar and Qantas flights between Tasmania and the mainland were grounded.

The first available ferry to Melbourne sails on Tuesday evening, while passengers hoping to book a ticket to Tasmania will have to wait until Wednesday evening to travel.

A spokesman for the company says extra daytime crossings are being considered but will depend on demand.

[ozbob]

http://www.bom.gov.au/info/vaac/cordon_caulle_image.shtml

Infrared satellite image

[HappyTrainGuy]

Not sure how the ash gets here, but I think it is high altitude so maybe the winds push it?

Yep, the ash gets thrown up in the air and caught in the southern hemisphere polar jet stream which is at its strongest usually during winter. Planes have been using them for decades to reduce fuel consumption and travel times as they can shorten the flying time by atleast 20-30%. Goes to show just how strong they are.

[ozbob]

Courier Mail --> Trans-Tasman and Melbourne flights cancelled due to ash cloud from Chilean volcano

Melbourne Age --> Ash cloud flight delays get chilly reaction

Herald Sun --> Qantas, Jetstar, Tiger and Virgin ground flights at Melbourne Airport

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

13 June 2011

The volcano - further highlights the basket case that is transport policy

Greetings,

The great Volcano ash cloud meltdown again highlights why we need to resource our rail networks properly.

I have scoured for any information on extra rail services being put on to help move stranded pax but haven't found any.

There are locomotives and preserved carriages from the Southern Aurora, the Intercapital Daylight, the Spirit of Progress at Thirlmere in NSW.  These could be put together for some specials. Spare XPTs could also be directed to key routes such as Brisbane - Sydney - Melbourne.

Anyone with half a brain realises that the future of air travel is problematical as peak oil really bites.  But lets just blunder on and pretend all is well hey?

Have a nice flight!

Best wishes
Robert

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Airlines divided on threat of ash cloud

[ozbob]

Courier Mail --> Second ash cloud threatens flights

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Second ash cloud threat

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> $1200 cab to Sydney beats the ash

[mufreight]

It might be a slower trip but even one train operated in each direction with the heritage rollingstock that is avaliable could have cleared some 500+ of these grounded passengers from Sydney to Melbourne with a similar service being operated out of Melbourne to Sydney using the two sets of VLine standard gauge carriages doing the same between Melbourne to Sydney with a quick turn around in Sydney and Melbourne the return trips could be accomplished in less than 30 hours taking that many passengers out of the airport terminal lounges.
Seems that the pro-active approach of the railway management to such opportunities has been lost.

[ozbob]

[HappyTrainGuy]

It might be a slower trip but even one train operated in each direction with the heritage rollingstock that is avaliable could have cleared some 500+ of these grounded passengers from Sydney to Melbourne with a similar service being operated out of Melbourne to Sydney using the two sets of VLine standard gauge carriages doing the same between Melbourne to Sydney with a quick turn around in Sydney and Melbourne the return trips could be accomplished in less than 30 hours taking that many passengers out of the airport terminal lounges.
Seems that the pro-active approach of the railway management to such opportunities has been lost.

Sounds simple but its quite a ask on such short notice though. Shunting and preping the carriages (Food/water/blankets/pillows etc), finding a crew or crews with route knowledge and availability, allocating paths, arranging whatever for passengers once it gets to the terminus etc.

[ozbob]

Sounds simple but its quite a ask on such short notice though. Shunting and preping the carriages (Food/water/blankets/pillows etc), finding a crew or crews with route knowledge and availability, allocating paths, arranging whatever for passengers once it gets to the terminus etc.

Indeed, but there was a time when would have been done, despite the challenges ...

I do recall a plan to use IMUs to evacuate from Maryborough a couple of years ago when flooding up that way.  Trains were positioned from memory but the need didn't eventuate. 

[ButFli]

No offence but I think there's a bit of a difference between sending a few IMUs to Maryborough and pulling a Southern Aurora set out from wherever it is and operating it between Sydney and Melbourne. Surely you can admit that?

People being prevented from traveling between Sydney and Melbourne for a few days is hardly the crisis that it is being made out to be. It certainly should not be the Government that has to organise and fund any alternate transportation.

[ozbob]

No offence but I think there's a bit of a difference between sending a few IMUs to Maryborough and pulling a Southern Aurora set out from wherever it is and operating it between Sydney and Melbourne. Surely you can admit that?

The exercise is one of pointing out the need for balanced options. I don't really expect to see the Southern Aurora carriages running tomorrow, but I would have expected some extra XPT services. Relax ..   I remember Christmas at South Brisbane station well, all the extra divisions of the Brisbane Ltd and specials to move the crowds.  These days are gone for now, but I have little doubt as airline ticket prices start to climb significantly rail will become an option for many again.

By the way the SA carriages are in regular use and will be running another tour in a month or so.

[ozbob]

Courier Mail --> Airlines defend no-fly decision as volcanic ash forces cancellation of 283 flights

Good to note the Bass Straight ferries have been selling a few extra seats for folks to travel in the  onboard Cinema seats ...

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Airlines struggle, delays could last for weeks

Rail should start promoting itself and look at the options ..

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes -->Now Adelaide hit by ash cloud

[colinw]

New eruption at Nabro Volcano in Eritrea near the border with Ethiopia.  No effect on Australian airspace this time, but some flights into Israel & Egypt are cancelled, and there is the potential for airspace shutdowns in the Mediterranean.

[colinw]

Chilean Government has put some webcams up in the region of Cordon Caulle volcanic complex.

http://www2.sernageomin.cl/ovdas/ovdas7/webcam_caulle1.html
http://www2.sernageomin.cl/ovdas/ovdas7/webcam_caulle2.html
http://www2.sernageomin.cl/ovdas/ovdas7/webcam_caulle3.html

Camera 2 has been giving the best view, 1 & 3 appear to be obscured by ashfall or rain at present.

[somebody]

Might be a few more for the XPT!

Major disruptions down south with volcano ash drifting in from Chile.

Courier Mail -->  Qantas, Jetstar flights cancelled as volcano ash from Chile reaches NZ and Australia; Virgin and Air NZ still flying

Brisbanetimes --> Ash sparks travel chaos

Flow on effects for many flights around Australia and global.

Bring back the Brisbane Limited!!   

So what I want to know is what is causing the ash to travel east-west against the Coriolus effect?  Something is not right here.

The Coriolus causes high altitude winds to travel west to east?  Are you sure?

[colinw]

The ash that is affecting flights came the long way around - west to east via the Atlantic & Indian oceans.

This should clarify:


There is nothing, I repeat, nothing abnormal going on here.  Just a good old fashioned moderate eruption that has managed to eject some ash into the jetstreams that circle the globe west to east at between 30 & 60 degrees of latitude north & south of the equator.

This is not even a particularly large eruption, certainly nothing like Pinatubo in the early '90s.

[HappyTrainGuy]

And here is an exmaple of the subtropical and polar jet streams.

[ozbob]

Well well ... something .... word on the street is a lot of bus operators have moved spare buses/coaches down south via the Newell ...

http://www.countrylink.info/

Service status

Due to airline problems, CountryLink has added supplementary coach services between Sydney and Melbourne. There are no major delays.  For information on scheduled trackwork, please visit the service status page. Please phone 13 22 32 for arrival and departure information about individual services.

There no spare XPTs but some of the country runs could be replaced with Endeavours and another XPT put on between Sydney and Melbourne. 

There is some standard gauge stuff around in Melbourne and Adelaide and spare Overland stock.  Bet the Overland is popular ... 

[ozbob]

Where is the GSPE?  LOL   (Rhetorical question, know where most of it is ..)

Sadly though, the non response by rail to what is a real need is just a sad reflection on the diabolical nature of passenger rail in Australia IMHO. 

Time to turn it around! 

[somebody]

There's no spare Endeavours either.  They'd have to replace something with a bus.  Possible, of course.

[colinw]

Time to bring the QR TGV back into service:



The triumphant return of the Yaraka mixed!

[ozbob]

There's no spare Endeavours either.  They'd have to replace something with a bus.  Possible, of course.

Any spare Explorers?  Worse than I thought ...

[ozbob]

I would suggest they fire up R711 but there is a minor issue. The have regauged the damn track!  So I guess it is up to 3801 ...   

[somebody]

There's no spare Endeavours either.  They'd have to replace something with a bus.  Possible, of course.

Any spare Explorers?  Worse than I thought ...

AIUI there is no spare anything in terms of CountryLink rollingstock.

[ozbob]

Vintage locomotives, B74 and S303 pull the Spirit of Progress towards Albury

[mufreight]

It might be a slower trip but even one train operated in each direction with the heritage rollingstock that is avaliable could have cleared some 500+ of these grounded passengers from Sydney to Melbourne with a similar service being operated out of Melbourne to Sydney using the two sets of VLine standard gauge carriages doing the same between Melbourne to Sydney with a quick turn around in Sydney and Melbourne the return trips could be accomplished in less than 30 hours taking that many passengers out of the airport terminal lounges.
Seems that the pro-active approach of the railway management to such opportunities has been lost.

Sounds simple but its quite a ask on such short notice though. Shunting and preping the carriages (Food/water/blankets/pillows etc), finding a crew or crews with route knowledge and availability, allocating paths, arranging whatever for passengers once it gets to the terminus etc.

Lets burst a couple of bubbles here.
Thr Southern Aurora set would be avaliable for use within a matter of hours and possibly also and more suited to the task a set of air conditioned sitting cars, the longest delay would be in arranging locos and crews.
If needed the RTM locos could be used, they have operational and accredited a 40 class, a 42 class, a 43 class, a 44 class (x2?) and a 45 class as for loco crews El Zorro, Independent Rail, QRN and PN would have crews avaliable.
On train crews could be sourced from Countrylink and the RTM.
As for an XPT set one could be released by the substution of an Explorer set which could be released by only running the North Western service as far as Werris Creek then using road coaches.  This has I am informed been done in the past to cover failed EPT's.
From the Victorian end there are it is understood now two sets of SG carriages for use on the Albury services which could be released by the substitution of a Velocity DMU to Seymour and road coaches from Seymour to Albury.
Between Melbourne and Adelaide I would be most surprised if GSR han not already added additional carriages to the Overland and used spare sitting carriages from the IP for an additional service.
Rail even today does have some capacity to operate additional services to fill the gap what appears to be sadly missing is the will and the motivation, there is the potential here so show a new generation that rail travel while slower is safe, reliable and comfortable.