Australian Rail Track Corporation chief executive David Marchant announced the speed limit increase today saying the introduction of 80 km per hour approaches for loaded coal trains reduced the headway between trains by over 3 minutes on each of these steep grades.
“With current section times of 17 and 20 minutes respectively, this represents a capacity increase of between 15% and 20%,” he said.
The headway between trains dictates the capacity of a section of plain track. Minimbah and Nundah banks represent the current headway limit between Antiene –just south of Muswellbrook – and the Newcastle ports.
According to the ARTC, reducing the headways on these steep sections therefore lifts the capacity of the network as a whole.
Marchant said the move was a great efficiency gain for the rail network that had cost less than $1 million and represented great value for money for the coal industry.
The speed limit increase and the $80 million Sandgate Grade Separation project are expected to lift the coal capacity of the Hunter Valley rail network to about 115 million tonnes per year.
The move to increase speed limits on the network is part of the ARTC’s $387 million Hunter Valley Coal Network Enhancement Strategy announced in April last year.
The Sandgate Grade Separation became operational in November last year allowing coal trains to cross to the Port of Newcastle without interruption from passenger and general freight trains.
