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Australian Rail Track Corporation’s investment in the rail corridor between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne continues unabated with the opening of two more passing loops at Tamrookum and Greenbank in Queensland.
The passing loops opened by ARTC are 1570m long to cater for 1500m trains passing through Tamrookum and Greenbank which are located within a 100km stretch between the Queensland border and Brisbane.
The loops will enable trains to pass each other efficiently as one train enters the loop and waits for a short period while the other train passes at regular speed.
These passing loops will be of significant benefit to operations at the Acacia Ridge freight terminal, facilitating quicker and more efficient entry and exit movements.
When combined with the existing 1500m loops in Queensland at Bromelton and Glenapp, these loops will provide increased mainline holding capacity and an efficient path in and out of the Acacia Ridge terminal.
ARTC Chief Executive Officer David Marchant said the new passing loops build on the work already completed and will result in shorter transit times between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
“ARTC is pushing forward with our plans to upgrade the Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne corridor and make rail transport more competitive. These passing loops are another important milestone in the north-south strategy to cut the transit time from Melbourne to Sydney to as low as 10 hours 40 minutes and 15 hours 35 minutes between Sydney and Brisbane,” Mr Marchant said.
“The passing loops ARTC is constructing along the rail corridor, the new concrete sleepers, and the signal upgrades are, combined, perhaps the biggest rail project since the track was originally laid,” Mr Marchant said.
“The investment in this corridor upgrade will see rail becoming competitive, and as each 1500 metre long train can replace 100 semi trailers we could see less trucks on our major roads,” Mr Marchant said.