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- 20,000 hours of work delivered over four days
- Safer, more reliable freight rail corridor between Melbourne & Sydney
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Improved train running and reliability for freight customers
Rail freight reliability and performance between Australia’s two major east coast capitals will improve thanks to a major maintenance upgrade to the Main South rail line over the Christmas – New Year break, ARTC Executive General Manager – Interstate, Peter Winder said today.
Mr Winder said the completed work will improve freight train running performance between Melbourne and Sydney – the busiest intermodal freight corridor in the country – and the reliability of rail services, already at its best in years, will be strengthened further again.
“While most of us were either settling in to watch the cricket test or battling the crowds at shopping malls, ARTC infrastructure staff got stuck in to upgrading Australia’s main southern rail freight line on Boxing Day,” Mr Winder said.
“More than 400 staff and contractors on any given day, poured nearly 20,000 hours of labour into the works between 26 and 30 December, seeing track upgraded, bridges renewed, level crossings refurbished, culverts repaired and other general maintenance tasks completed.”
Forty-five separate projects were delivered over the four days, across 1150km of track.
“All the jobs were safely handed back as planned, ensuring freight kept moving around the country,” Mr Winder said.
Across the 45 projects, ARTC delivered:
- 40km of track resurfacing
- 8.2km of re-railing
- 3 level crossing refurbishments
- Over 10km of shoulder ballast cleaning
- 1650m of track undercutting and drainage
- Installed 5500 concrete sleepers
- Renewed 5 bridges with 225 new transoms
- Other works included cutting and embankment works, surveying, culvert repairs and installation, turnout maintenance and removing redundant track infrastructure.
“We would like to thank our customers and local residents, businesses and motorists for their patience while we completed this essential work,” said Mr Winder.
An additional nine projects between Moss Vale and Unanderra (20-21 December) and 29 projects between Flemington South and Port Botany (2-5 January) were also delivered successfully over the holiday period.
ENDS
Media Contact: Bas Bolyn, ARTC, 0477 340 658