Southern Sydney Freight Line

[ozbob]

Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL)

--> http://www.ssfl.artc.com.au/

Overview

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is undertaking a program of works to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of rail freight services along the North-South Rail Corridor between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. A major bottleneck in the rail freight network currently exists in southern Sydney, where freight trains share existing rail lines with the Sydney metropolitan passenger services operated by RailCorp. Further, there is a curfew for rail trains during morning and afternoon peak periods and freight services are not permitted to run. As a result, freight services cannot arrive or depart Sydney at the optimum times.

To alleviate this bottleneck, the ARTC is constructing the Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL), which will provide a dedicated freight line for a distance of 36 kilometres between Birrong and Macarthur in southern Sydney. The SSFL will provide a third track in the rail corridor specifically for freight services, allowing passenger and freight services to operate independently.

Construction of 5 kilometres of new freight line between Birrong and Leightonfield including a rail underpass known as a "Dive" under RailCorps' Bankstown Line has now been completed.

ARTC has selected Leighton Contractors to deliver the final stage of the Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) in an Alliance contract.The Alliance will complete the construction of the SSFL between Leightonfield and Glenlee.

The transition into the final stage will occur in early December 2011.

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Twitter

Anthony Albanese ‏@AlboMP

Tomorrow morning I am opening Southern Sydney Freight Line -$1b fed investment through ARTC- 36 km separate line to clear rail bottleneck

[ozbob]

Twitter

Anthony Albanese ‏@AlboMP

Will end daytime curfew of up to 8hrs/day by separating freight rail from passenger - we r cutting rail travel time Mel-Bris by 7hrs

[SurfRail]

Geez, about time.  It's like somebody was building this on weekends in their spare time.

[colinw]

ARTC projects tend to be like that.  They still haven't finished Acacia Ridge to Bromelton, and lots of the new turnouts & stuff are sitting beside the line growing weeds years after they were delivered to site.

I think the track bed problems on Albury to Melbourne have been occupying a lot of ARTC's resources.

[ozbob]

From the Sydney Morning Herald click here!

'We wanted to make sure we got it right': new rail line opens ... three years late

'We wanted to make sure we got it right': new rail line opens ... three years late
January 21, 2013 - 1:35PM Jacob Saulwick

The first train line in Sydney to be paid for and built under the Rudd and Gillard governments opened on Monday, $700 million over budget and three years after it was promised to be finished.

The 36km Southern Sydney Freight Line will allow extra freight trains to run between Macarthur and Chullora in the city's south west and will increase rail freight capacity along the entire Australian east coast.

But the project ended up being vastly more expensive to build than when it was first promised by the federal Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, in 2009.

At a press conference in Birrong to mark the start of operations on the line, Mr Albanese and the chief executive of the Australian Rail Track Corporation, which built the line, defended the blow-out.

The final cost was about $1 billion. When Mr Albanese announced the start of construction in February 2009, he put a figure of $309 million on the project and a completion date of early 2010.

"This is a pretty complex piece of work," Mr Albanese said on Monday.

He attributed the delays and cost blow-outs to the necessity of moving utilities such as water and energy lines during construction.

Mr Albanese also said that the difficulty of operating on a live rail line – both freight trains and passenger trains on the adjoining East Hills line stayed running while the new line was being built – added to the challenge of the project.

"We wanted to make sure we got it right," the Transport Minister said. "No corners have been cut. This has been got right."

The Australian Rail Track Corporation is owned by the federal government. As with the NBN Co. it receives money from the federal government in the form of investments which do not come off the government's budget bottom line.

Mr Albanese declined to criticise the ARTC for the more than three-fold increase in the cost of the project. According to figures provided to Senate Estimates, the ARTC spent almost $12 million in planning the line before construction even started in 2009.

"This is an investment," he said. "This is an investment that's been got right. This isn't a loss to taxpayers. This is an investment that produces a return on that investment by getting it right."

Mr Fullerton said the new train line, which will allow capacity for up to 48 freight trains a day to pass through the area and potentially to Port Botany, was the largest project the ARTC had undertaken.

"The original budget made some assumptions on how we could build a line over 36 kilometres adjacent to a metropolitan line but when we got into the project we realised that lot of the services covering off Sydney Water, a lot of the RailCorp services to do with signalling, electricity lines, all those sorts of things had to be relocated and that comes at a significant cost over 36 kilometres," Mr Fullerton said.

The ARTC stopped work on the freight line in late 2009 and 2010. The benefit of the line is in allowing passenger trains and freight trains to run separately from each other.

This means that an existing eight-hour curfew on freight trains running during the morning and afternoon peak periods can now be lifted.

Mr Albanese defended the record of the federal Labor government in relation to transport in Sydney.

As transport minister, he has promised to build the Epping to Parramatta train line, though that pledge has been scuppered by the O'Farrell government which ranks it a lower priority. He has also agreed to fund a new freight terminal at Moorebank and another freight train line through Sydney's northern suburbs, though both are still at the planning stage.

"What Sydney needs is a little bit of positive when it comes to infrastructure, because for too long its been just negative and what's that led to is governments to not make decisions that should have been made a long time beforehand," he said.

"This should have been a separate line, not years ago, not decades ago, but maybe a hundred years ago, in terms of the port having dedicated rail freight lines."

The project also included a mix of new access lifts, pedestrian bridges and ramps to Leumeah, Minto, Cabramatta, Sefton, Warwick Farm and Casula stations.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/we-wanted-to-make-sure-we-got-it-right-new-rail-line-opens--three-years-late-20130121-2d279.html

[nathandavid88]

A much more positive story from the ABC:

Billion-dollar freight rail line opens in Sydney
Updated 3 hours 4 minutes ago


The new $1 billion Southern Sydney Freight Line has been officially opened.

The 36-kilometre stretch of track means freight trains no longer have to give way to Sydney's passenger trains during peak hours.

The Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says the new line means faster travel times between Melbourne to Brisbane - and fewer trucks on the roads.

"It makes a big difference in terms of reducing urban congestion on our roads," he said.

"It also makes a big difference in terms of safety."

Mr Albanese says it means more businesses will choose rail over road.

"[We're] cutting the time for rail freight to go from Brisbane to Melbourne by some seven hours," he said.

"On the east-west network, we've cut the time from the east coast to the west coast by some nine hours - that's an extraordinary difference."

The freight line project was funded by Australian Rail Track Corporation, with the final stage delivered in partnership with Leighton Contractors.

Passngers are also set to benefit from the project with new lifts, bridges and wheelchair ramps at Leumeah, Minto, Cabramatta, Sefton, Warwick Farm and Casula stations.

New car parks, awnings, ramps and cycle paths have also been built.

[ozbob]

Couriermail --> New freight link boosts speed: govt

[Stillwater]

Meanwhile, on the Brisbane-Townsville-Mount Isa section of the National Transport Network .......

[ozbob]

Meanwhile, on the Brisbane-Townsville-Mount Isa section of the National Transport Network .......

Townsville or bust!  Here we come ...


http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/119454

Goods train coming out of the Roma Street Railway yards, Brisbane, ca. 1890

[boxe]

Geez, about time.  It's like somebody was building this on weekends in their spare time.

It was, as most work was completed especially on weekends where Trackwork occurred on BOTH the Airport and East Hills and South Lines. Not only was construction slow but it was it exploited the inconvenience of passengers living in Campbelltown and the greater Macarthur region in general. 

While the SMH article states the line was 3 years late, the construction is still continuing with some sound barrier walls still yet to be completed. The criticism won't stop here, I don't think. Why should people nearby, at certain sections have to put up with excessive noise for a few more years until these associated infrastructure which complement the main one (the actual railway line) is entirely complete? Yet again, here we see the economical and political agendas* put ahead of the social ones.

*Refer to this tweet, yet another example where everything and anything the government does from now on can be associated with the "Asian Century" https://twitter.com/sarahljchambers/status/293120650204311552

In addition to this, evidence of the passing freight loops at Macquarie Fields and Ingleburn prior to the SSFL* are indicative of a pre-SSFL work and vision. In essence behind all the politics, and focusing on solely the purpose, functionality and advantages this line brings, we can conclude the line was in fact more than a DECADE late. 

*source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingleburn_railway_station#cite_note-5

I won't be completely convinced that this line will bring any benefits until I see it in the major timetable revamp, expected in June/July when passenger trains, especially those peak hour Southern Highlands Line trains which have a track record for delaying certain suburban services can also use the SSFL to avoid further obstruction.

[ozbob]

Sydney Morning Herald --> Freight train bottleneck solution finally lands, with $1b price tag

[ozbob]

Twitter

10m Aust Railway Assoc Aust Railway Assoc ‏@AustRail

New freight line frees up Sydney's south http://tinyurl.com/b2uh4tm

22 January 2013

Freight line frees up the tracks in Sydney's south

Rail stands ready to take more freight off Sydney's roads following the commencement this week of the new Southern Sydney Freight Line.

Funded by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), the new dedicated freight line will alleviate a major bottleneck in the rail freight network of Southern Sydney, where freight trains currently share existing lines with Sydney passenger rail services.

"This new 36km dedicated freight line will clear the way for increased freight efficiencies and decreased congestion in Sydney's south, with flow on benefits for the entire network" said Bryan Nye, Australasian Railway Association (ARA) CEO.

The Southern Sydney Freight Line will provide a third track in the rail corridor specifically for freight services, allowing passenger and freight services to operate independently.

The completion of this freight line is complemented by projects underway such as the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor, a sorely needed investment that will allow freight and passenger services alike a quicker journey into Sydney from the north.

"The ARA congratulates the Federal Government and the ARTC on the completion of this four year, $1 Billion project which will be a real shot in the arm for Sydney's productivity, and the next train out of the station is the Northern Sydney Freight Corridor project" continued Mr Nye.

The average freight train takes 110 trucks off the road, reduces carbon emissions by a factor of 10, dramatically increases road safety and is the most efficient mode of transport for journeys over 500 kilometres.

"Clearly, a continual investment in rail freight is needed so that our cities can remain healthy and productive into the future," Mr Nye concluded.

-ENDS-

[somebody]

especially those peak hour Southern Highlands Line trains which have a track record for delaying certain suburban services can also use the SSFL to avoid further obstruction.

Are the DMU's allowed to use the SSFL?

I believe the Countrylink ones are.  Not sure about the Cityrail ones, but I guess it's just a matter of negotiating with the ARTC.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Meanwhile, on the Brisbane-Townsville-Mount Isa section of the National Transport Network .......

Townsville or bust!  Here we come ...


http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/119454

Goods train coming out of the Roma Street Railway yards, Brisbane, ca. 1890

Makes you realise just how old those bridge girders are

[colinw]

... and just how long lasting an investment in rail infrastructure is.

Townsville or bust!  Here we come ...

Nitpick: Toowoomba or bust, that train is going west. In any case, in 1890 it was impossible to run a train from Brisbane to Townsville as the systems hadn't been linked up. /foam

[somebody]

Nitpick: Toowoomba or bust, that train is going west. In any case, in 1890 it was impossible to run a train from Brisbane to Townsville as the systems hadn't been linked up. /foam

It's impossible in 2013.