Central Australian Railway

This article deals with the Central Australian Railway, for the "Central Australia Railway" see Great Northern Railway (South Australia) .

Central Australian Railway
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Darwin Katherine Newcastle Waters Tennant Creek Alice Springs Roe Creek Mereenie Hugh River Finke River Impadna Kulgera Northern Territory / South Australia Marryat Chandler Marla Cadney Park Manguri Wirrida Carnes Northgate Trans- Australian Railroad to Perth Tarcoola Trans- Australian Railways to Adelaide & Sydney

The Central Australian Railway (CAR) is a standard gauge railway that crosses the continent of Australia in a north-south direction.

location

The northern end of the route is Darwin . It begins, branching off from the Trans-Australian Railway , in Tarcoola . Operationally, it is geared towards the connection to Adelaide and to Broken Hill and Sydney . Except in Tarcoola, the route has no other connection to the Australian route network . The Adelaide – Alice Springs – Darwin connection, of which the Central Australian Railway is the main component, crosses four climatic zones and 22.5 degrees of latitude over 2,979 km.

history

Attempt in narrow gauge

Since the 1870s, the then colony of South Australia sought to establish this connection. Since the Northern Territory was administered by South Australia at that time , the colony began building a railway in Cape Gauge from Port Augusta in the south (Great Northern Railway) and from Darwin (then: Palmerston ) in the north ( Northern Australian Railway ). However, the project was completely oversized for the resources of South Australia, so that it was handed over to the Australian Confederation in 1911. The Commonwealth Railways continued the project and reached Alice Springs in 1929 from the south and Birdum from the north . But here the project finally got stuck. Even the immense transport needs of the military during World War II in view of the Japanese air raids on Darwin did not lead to further construction. The Northern Australian Railroad was abandoned in 1976 for economic reasons in the face of competing road traffic.

Completion in standard gauge

First section: Tarcoola – Alice Springs

Memorial to the first million laid railroad ties, south of Alice Springs

The inadequate execution and the unfavorable topography of the remaining Great Northern Railway - parts of the line were repeatedly washed away by floods or blown by sand dunes - led to a complete re-planning of the line in standard gauge. In order to shorten the route and avoid these natural phenomena, a route about 300 km further west was chosen as the starting station in Tarcoola . This route was proposed as early as 1914 after a survey . The groundbreaking for the new building was made on April 12, 1975 by the Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam . Construction lasted five years, was carried out by the then federal railroad, Australian National , and opened in 1980.

Second section: Alice Springs – Darwin

Bridge south of Mataranka

Route north of Katherine

Construction of the Alice Springs to Darwin railway began in 2001. This section of the route was built in cooperation between the state and private industry in an operator model (Build-Operate-Transfer [BOOT]). For this purpose, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation was founded in 1997 by the government of the Northern Territory to build and operate the Central Australian Railway. 50% of the company is owned by the state of South Australia. In 2000 it awarded the contract for the construction of the Alice Springs – Darwin route to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium . The Australian Confederation subsidized the project with 165 million AUD , the same amount went to the Northern Territory. South Australia contributed A $ 150 million. The three governments also contributed A $ 79 million to secure loans. A $ 740 million private investment was made. Ultimately, the construction cost about $ 1.3 BILLION.

The end-to-end connection was established on September 17, 2003 after the project had been striving for over a hundred years. To this end, 90 bridges were built and two million concrete sleepers were laid. Freight traffic started on January 17, 2004. The first The Ghan reached Darwin on February 4, 2004.

business

Legal basis

The AustralAsia Railway Corporation is one of the link Alice Springs-Darwin, the stretch Alice Springs Tarcoola, the Company has leased from the Commonwealth of Australia. She has (sub) leased the entire route to the railway company Freight Link , which also operates the freight traffic there. In economic terms, the railway has not achieved the success that Australia expected. On May 19, 2008, Freight Link decided to sell its involvement in the project after it had never made a profit since it was commissioned. However, there was no buyer. The company has been under forced administration since November 6, 2008 .

Technical operation

The route is single-lane along the entire length. The distances between the crossing points are enormous, sometimes several hundred kilometers. So there is no alternative between Darwin and Katherine . This makes the route very underperforming - even if it has not yet been fully used - and can lead to delays lasting hours.

The route is not electrified . Only diesel locomotives are used and always in double traction . The second locomotive is not necessarily needed because of the traction power, but carried along as a scared locomotive in the event that the first locomotive becomes inoperable. Given the long distances, it would take too long to get a replacement locomotive.

There is no signal protection between Alice Springs and Darwin . Before entering a section of the route, the train driver must obtain the relevant permission from the dispatcher by radio . The backup is therefore similar to the backup by a drive command . The system is to be converted to GPS .

traffic

Train crossing in Katherine ; front: The Ghan with double traction in the direction of Darwin, behind a freight train coming from Darwin

The route is mainly used by freight trains operated by Freight Link. Six days a week, a regular freight train runs north and south. Mainly containers are transported. The number of trains is an increase compared to before, so the traffic is increasing. The freight trains are given priority in operation.

The only passenger transport offered on the route is the hotel train The Ghan . It runs once a week, twice in high season, in each direction and is used almost exclusively by tourists. It is operated by the railway company Great Southern Railway . The subordinate role of passenger transport is also reflected in the location of the train stations and reception buildings : in Katherine the train station is around 15 km from the town, in Darwin around 25 km from the city center.

Rating

The construction of the Alice Springs to Darwin Railway is considered the largest Australian construction project since the Snowy Mountains Scheme , the largest construction project in Australian history. It is considered to be an important contribution to the development of tourism in the Northern Territory.

The most important line of business on the route, however, is freight traffic, combined with the hope of making the port of Darwin more attractive for trade with neighboring Asia . The construction of the line had a positive effect on traffic on the parallel Stuart Highway : the number of road trains has decreased significantly.

Future developments

Minemakers Ltd. is currently developing a phosphate mine in Wonarah , east of Tennant Creek. In 2009 it commissioned a study to investigate whether the transport of the phosphate over an approx. 250 km long, standard-gauge, new line to be built from Wonarah, which connects to the Central Australian Railway in Tennant Creek, and via the port of Darwin is recommended. At the moment, the production of the pit is severely limited due to the limited possibility of transporting the phosphate by road. Such a route could be extended over 380 km to Mount Isa , where there would be a connection to the (Cape-gauge) Queensland Rail route on the Australian east coast to Townsville . Such a route could partially replace the connection via the Barkly Highway, which is repeatedly interrupted by flooding .

Web links

Commons : Adelaide-Darwin Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• AustralAsia Railway Corporation - owners of the line
• History of the line
• History of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway
• TARCOOLA TO ALICE SPRINGS RAILWAY ACT 1974

literature

• John L. Buckland: Standard Gauge to Alice Springs - Construction of Tarcoola-Alice Springs Railway . In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, June 1981, pp. 117-139.
• Central Australia Railway: Time-Table with Connecting Services to and from Adelaide . March 1, 1978.
• Basil Fuller: The Ghan - The Story of the Alice Springs Railway . Sydney 1975, ND 2003, ISBN 9781741108064 .
• NN: leaflet. Across Australia's Center . Approx. 1975. [then issued to the travelers of the Ghan]
• Jack Rozycki: The Never Never Line. Australia's biggest project: the Adelaide-Darwin railway . In: Australian Geographic 69, pp. 50-67.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Platform 7 (2008), p. 29.
2. ^ Fuller, p. 223.
3. ^ NN: Across Australia's Center .
4. ↑ Buckland.
5. ^ Vesna Poljak and Michael Smith: Banks force sale of $ 1.2bn Adelaide- Darwin rail link . In: The Australian Financial Review, May 19, 2008, p. 1 u. 19th
6. ^ NN: End of the line as train sale derailed . In: Northern Territory News, Nov. 7, 2008.
7. ↑ Own tour in February 2009 and interviews with the railway staff.
8. ↑ Extra Adel-Darwin rail service starts . July 9, 2008.
9. ↑ NN: First stepps to Mount Isa? In: Railway Digest, March 2009, p. 14.