Railway in Western Australia
The Western Australia railroad began in 1871 when the first line opened. The further development was characterized by a mixed system of state railways and privately built and operated railways. The latter mainly served to remove raw materials, initially wood and later mining products.
history
Due to the extremely low population density of the colony Western Australia , which also concentrated on the region around the capital Perth and the port of Fremantle , the railroad in Western Australia was built relatively late compared to the railways in the Australian colonies further east . Economically viable connections only emerged at the end of the 1860s. The Cape gauge, which is cheaper than the standard gauge, was chosen as the standard gauge . Since 1877, the control of the railways was under a separate Ministry of Railways of the State of Western Australia.
Western Australia's first railroad was a privately built line between Lockville on the coast and Yoganup in the hinterland, south of Perth. It was used to transport wood, especially the wood of the Jarrah tree , a popular raw material for railway sleepers . Numerous such railways were built in Western Australia in the following years. The line between Geralton and Northampton followed in 1879 as the first state-built railroad . Perth and its port of Fremantle were connected by rail in 1881. The first routes were created both as state railways ( Western Australian Railways , from 1890: Western Australian Government Railways , 1975-2000: Westrail ) and as privately built railways partly financed by state land grants . The most important private railways were the Midland Railway of Western Australia and the Great Southern Railway (Western Australia) . The latter was taken over by the State Railways in 1896, the former in 1964. The main reason for the construction of the lines was the removal of agricultural and mining products , i.e. the connection between the hinterland and the ports. The most important connections were the lines from Perth to Fremantle (1881), Albany (1889) - built by the Great Southern Railway (Western Australia) -, Bunbury (1893), Geraldton (1894) and Kalgoorlie (1896) as well as the connection from Kalgoorlie after Esperance . In addition, the state railway built some narrow-gauge lines in more remote parts of the country, for example from Port Hedland inland to Marble Bar , called " Spinifex Flier" . The Trans- Australian Railway , which started in Kalgoorlie and ran east, was built and operated by the federal railways and opened in 1917. A standard-gauge line reached Western Australia for the first time. In 1968 it was extended in a westerly direction to Northam , where it replaced the Cape Gauge route. A three-rail track was installed west of Northam , which extended the standard gauge to Fremantle and some industrial and commercial areas around Perth. All Cape gauge routes east of Kalgoorlie, including the route to Esperance, have been completely on standard gauge umgespurt . The mine-owned railways in the north of Western Australia were also built in standard gauge, but are an island operation with no connection to the rest of the network.
business
traffic
Passenger transport is now offered by the state Public Transport Authority (Western Australia) , which operates the two railway companies Transperth (for suburban traffic in the greater Perth area) and Transwa (for domestic long-distance traffic). In this national long-distance traffic, however, connections are only offered on the routes between Perth, Kalgoorlie and Bunbury. The Perth – Kalgoorlie connection is operated by the Prospector train , which travels up to 160 km / h on standard gauge. Along with the Queensland railroad tilting trains, this is the highest scheduled speed in Australia. Then there is the Great Southern Railway , operator of the Indian Pacific , on the Perth – Sydney connection .
In 2000, the State Railroad sold its freight division to the Australian Western Railroad , which belonged to the Australian Railroad Group (ARG) and was resold to Queensland Rail in 2006 . A significant part of the network was leased to WestNet Rail , which was also part of the Australian Railroad Group , which operates the domestic freight traffic. Babcock & Brown Limited took over this lease in 2006 . Interstate freight traffic is operated by Pacific National and QRNational .
Infrastructure
The Cape Gauge Network of the former West Australian State Railways, including the three-rail track between Perth and Northam and the lines from Northam to Kalgoorlie and from there to Esperance, which have been converted to standard gauge, is still managed by Babcock & Brown Limited . The routes for suburban traffic in the Perth area were electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz alternating current from 1986 . This suburban network is being expanded further and is considered exemplary in Australia. The standard gauge line east of Kalgoorlie belongs to the Australian Rail Track Corporation as the successor to the Australian Federal Railways .
Mining tracks
Some mining operations in northern Western Australia maintain their own railroad networks that connect the mining operations to ports on the coast. There are three route networks. All are in standard gauge and are used exclusively by the company's own freight transport. Run it suits other mining operations on network access .
- Two railways owned by BHP Billiton run from Port Hedland into the hinterland. these are
- the Mount Newman Railway to Newman and
- the Goldsworthy railway to Shay Gap .
- The Hamersley & Robe River Railway is part of the Rio Tinto Group , has a total of 1,300 km of route and runs from the ports of Dampier and Cape Lambert to a number of mines.
- The Fortescue Railway is owned by the Fortescue Metals Group and runs from the Cloud Break Mine to Herb Elliott Port near Port Hedland.
- The Roy Hill Railway connects the iron ore mine of the same name with the harbor in Port Hedland
These railways are used to transport iron ore from the mining to the loading ports. They are designed for maximum transport performance and are considered technical systems that get the maximum performance that the wheel-rail system is able to provide. The trains that run here are among the longest and heaviest in the world. Operation and maintenance of the railways are highly automated. The loading systems are monitored by staff in Perth, the wheel sets of the ore wagons are repaired by fully automatic processing lines.
In addition, other such routes are planned or under construction:
- A route from the port of Oakajee (north of Geralton) into the hinterland was proposed . In contrast to the existing ones, this railway should be open to any mining company that wishes to be connected to it.
- Also with the destination of the port of Oakajee, WestNet Rail has proposed a three- rail connection that could also connect to the Cape Gauge of the existing network south of Geralton.
- In 2010, the Rio Tinto Group announced that it would connect further iron ore mines to the port of Dampier with a railway line.
Automatic Train Operation AutoHaul
Rio Tinto introduced automatic train operation at the beginning of 2017, so that the train drivers only have monitoring tasks. At the end of 2017, 50% of the services were already being performed in automatic operation and the first completely staffless train ran from Wombat Junction to Paraburdoo. In June 2019, the transition to the driverless AutoHaul operation on the 1500 km long network was completed. Up to 50 trains with two to three locomotives and 240 cars run at the same time. The trains are 2.4 km long and transport 28,000 tons of ore. The journey from the company's 16 mines to the seaports in Dampier and Cape Lambert is around 800 km and takes around 40 hours. The trains run in GoA 4 operation to the end of the main line a few miles from the seaports and are taken over by train drivers for the journey to the port. The unloading process in the port is again fully automatic.
The automatic operation saves staff and travel time, because the trains no longer have to stop on the route to change staff. The timetable is stabilized because the travel times between the individual trains on a route section only vary between 15 and 30 seconds instead of between 2.5 and 5 minutes in manual operation.
The AutoHaul project was launched in 2012, where it was estimated that the transition to automated operations, which should have been introduced in 2015, would cost $ 518 million. During the inception of the AutoHaul operation, Rio Tinto did not reveal much information about the project so that the company's share prices would not be affected. In 2018, the estimate was already 940 million US dollars and a four-year delay in the introduction.
literature
- Fred N. Affleck: On track: the making of Westrail, 1950 to 1976 . Westrail, Perth 1978. ISBN 0-7244-7560-5
- Jim Powe: Trains and Railways of Australia . 2nd ed. Sydney 2009. ISBN 9781741109023
- John R. Newland et al. Howard Quinlan: Australian Railway Routes 1854-2000 . 2000. ISBN 0-909650-49-7
Web links
- Pilbara Railways - rail enthusiast site
- Map of country railways and passenger services
- Official network map (2 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Railways in Western Australia ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Decommissioned 1957.
- ↑ According to other information: 1993.
- ↑ Rio Tinto to boost Pilbara capacity - International Railway Journal ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Rio Tinto completes first fully autonomous rail journey in Western Australia. Retrieved October 2, 2017, December 24, 2017 (UK English).
- ^ A b c Kevin Smith: Rise of the machines . Rio Tinto breaks new ground with AutoHaul. In: International Railway Journal (IRJ) . August 2019, p. 14-18 .
