I didnt know about this one, thats great https://inlandrail.artc.com.au/what-is-inland-rail/
Still some ways to go though, passenger services are a long behind. Still no high speed services and none expected in my lifetime.
Ateco
- Thread starter Breitie
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Still some ways to go though, passenger services are a long behind. Still no high speed services and none expected in my lifetime.
The railways today exist for freight. Passenger services have to fit in. Even so, NSW has bought a new fleet of long distance and inter-urban trains as well as replacing the metropolitan services. A very high speed Sydney Canberra Melbourne dedicated line simply doesn't stack up without massive subsidy. We don't have the traffic volumes of Japan or China (and the shinkansen isn't a cheap ride).
Inland rail basically connects Melbourne to Brisbane for non-export traffic, passing through the major existing goods hub at Parkes (Gobang Junction) where it will meet traffic from SA and WA and from Sydney. This takes through trains out of the very high-traffic Sydney-Newcastle area, even though new all-goods lines have been built. Being in flat country without tunnels and overbridges it can double stack.
All goods services use diesel power. Nowra to Newcastle and west to Lithgow have overhead electrification built for heavy trains, but electric locos were found to be uneconomic and have been scrapped,
Inland rail basically connects Melbourne to Brisbane for non-export traffic, passing through the major existing goods hub at Parkes (Gobang Junction) where it will meet traffic from SA and WA and from Sydney. This takes through trains out of the very high-traffic Sydney-Newcastle area, even though new all-goods lines have been built. Being in flat country without tunnels and overbridges it can double stack.
All goods services use diesel power. Nowra to Newcastle and west to Lithgow have overhead electrification built for heavy trains, but electric locos were found to be uneconomic and have been scrapped,
The Port of Melbourne is Victoria's busiest port and the largest container and general cargo port in Australia. Container traffic at the port is projected to grow by 2.6% per year, from 2.9 million Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2018 to around 9 million TEUs in 2050. A lot of containers leave Melbourne by rail for distribution around the nation but at an average speed of about 35 km/h or less there is some serious room for updating rolling stock (how old is it currently?) and track infrastructure. Sydney is only the second largest port, sorry!
Victorian Railways at their centenary in 1954 was one the the greatest rail systems in the world for number of passengers transported and goods carried. The network was extensive to all areas of the state. Unfortunately it went into decline for a number of reasons. There were 1200 locomotives in the fleet in 1954. Seventy years ago goods trains travelled at 40 mph, fast goods at 60 mph and main line passenger at 60 mph later raised to 70 mph.
Attempts are being made to rebuild the rail system in a limited area of central Victoria for passenger traffic and from all accounts receiving substantial patronage. Outer areas where the tracks have not been ripped up are left with a rather run down system with travel speeds of long ago. Indeed Stephensons Rocket achieved a higher average on the Stockton to Darlington than do some of our Mallee grain trains. There are not many votes in diverting country freight to rail so modest funding requests to allow more grain to go by rail have been declined. Difficult to rebuild a rail system that was long ignored and its land plundered but it's possible.
Just travelled on a main country highway today with a legally maximum wide load noting how wide the trucks were needing all their road and how impractical it is to suggest that we should alter our standards to suit foreign interests.
Australia has transport standards to suit our own needs and interests. No value in always thinking others know better.
Attempts are being made to rebuild the rail system in a limited area of central Victoria for passenger traffic and from all accounts receiving substantial patronage. Outer areas where the tracks have not been ripped up are left with a rather run down system with travel speeds of long ago. Indeed Stephensons Rocket achieved a higher average on the Stockton to Darlington than do some of our Mallee grain trains. There are not many votes in diverting country freight to rail so modest funding requests to allow more grain to go by rail have been declined. Difficult to rebuild a rail system that was long ignored and its land plundered but it's possible.
Just travelled on a main country highway today with a legally maximum wide load noting how wide the trucks were needing all their road and how impractical it is to suggest that we should alter our standards to suit foreign interests.
Australia has transport standards to suit our own needs and interests. No value in always thinking others know better.
Kim, we know about the Melbourne port and I haven't compared it with Sydney. You don't have to, because Sydney sent the cargoes away. Sydney only has Botany Bay active and that presents enough congestion problems, but Newcastle and Port Kembla ports aren't far away. Add that lot up and see where the traffic is.
Melbourne goods trains still have to mix it with other traffic. Beyond the city trains run at economic speeds, rather than racing. They do move it on the Main West on the flat country. On the subject of rolling stock, one development, for economy, has been the bringing back to service (with overhauls) of museum pieces. A Vic company, SSR, dominates that business and runs trains with extraordinary arrays of mixed antiques up front. Other companies are buying new.
NSW generally, not Sydney, is the freight centre of the country. It connects the standard gauge. Sydney is the place for passenger trains and underground lines.
Grain trains are only needed infrequently, and then with large loads to shift. The branch lines have no other use and and are poorly maintained. Fortunately some 60 y.o locos like the 48 class can use these light lines and run as fast as the rail quality permits, ie slowly. There's no hurry. Their trains are usually amalgamated at some main line junction and moved by newer power. The current harvest is huge - much is going interstate for shipping.
Melbourne goods trains still have to mix it with other traffic. Beyond the city trains run at economic speeds, rather than racing. They do move it on the Main West on the flat country. On the subject of rolling stock, one development, for economy, has been the bringing back to service (with overhauls) of museum pieces. A Vic company, SSR, dominates that business and runs trains with extraordinary arrays of mixed antiques up front. Other companies are buying new.
NSW generally, not Sydney, is the freight centre of the country. It connects the standard gauge. Sydney is the place for passenger trains and underground lines.
Grain trains are only needed infrequently, and then with large loads to shift. The branch lines have no other use and and are poorly maintained. Fortunately some 60 y.o locos like the 48 class can use these light lines and run as fast as the rail quality permits, ie slowly. There's no hurry. Their trains are usually amalgamated at some main line junction and moved by newer power. The current harvest is huge - much is going interstate for shipping.
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Just check the growth of the Victorian rail network and it's decline fostered by the arrival of road freight barons like Ansett, Ipec, Fox, Toll etc. who together from WW2 onwards ensured tracks were ripped up and easements sold off around the country in favour of their business interests rather than those of Australians in general. Click here: VicRail 1860-2000
its 35mm ffs....
Don't blame Toll for the Vic railways decline. It is now a giant foreign-owned firm based in Melbourne, but at the times concerned was a not-large coal hauling business around the Newcastle/Hunter pits. I remember their lorries.
If you watch the containers in the long block trains, a great many have the big trucking businesses' badges painted on them. These firms carry by rail for long distance loads. They aren't the enemy of rail transport today.
If you watch the containers in the long block trains, a great many have the big trucking businesses' badges painted on them. These firms carry by rail for long distance loads. They aren't the enemy of rail transport today.
Victoria also has Geelong as it's second busiest port, it also has Westernport, for oil, steel and the RAN! We can hear the 3am steel trains rolling past every morning from our house 1km from the Crib Point - Melbourne line.
No, they are the enemy of the taxpayer, as although they pay road taxes, it's nowhere near enough to maintain the nearly 880,000 km of the roads they damage as part of their business.
Your experience with truck driving is .... If we alter our standard because of some obscure foreign vehicle then we don't have standards. If it's only 35 mm then if the maker wishes to sell here it will be no problem for them to modify their vehicle to our standards.
Kim I have a large map of the rail network from 1954.
VR was at its peak in the 1920's under the brilliant leadership of Harold Clapp. Deprived of funds during the 1930's absolutely worn out by the brilliant job they did during the war of transporting our armies and their supplies, but given a good funding boost after 1950 including the new B class diesels and electrification of the West Gippsland line with the L class English Electrics. I have fond memories of the 77 Fast Goods to Adelaide absolutely thundering along on its passenger bougies double headed by S Classes, bringing the unfinished commercial bodies from Elizabeth through to Fishermans Bend. Or the Overland, so long it couldn't fit on the Ballarat platform, the catering staff standing by for the military operation of serving over a thousand passengers their evening meal in twenty minutes.
There were many reasons they declined, road transport and the car was seen as the future, yes the transport industry certainly had the ear of government, but the unions were short sighted too but ultimately there was declining use that was used to justify declining investment and down it all went.
Not only that but the roads have to be built to accomodate their axle loadings, no doubt with a conservative design. Road damage is proportional to about the third power of axle loading if I recall. So I suspect, but don't know, that the truck operators are heavily subsidised by the taxpayer yet we rail against subsidising the railways.
Well done guys turn a post about a importer into rants about trains and what not.
Lol. And yet you complain they won’t import Dacia 
Anyhoo, the ATA doesn’t agree with you. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest they know more about it than both of us combined
https://www.truck.net.au/media/medi...ocking-electric-hydrogen-and-cleaner-vehicles
Anyhoo, the ATA doesn’t agree with you. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest they know more about it than both of us combined
https://www.truck.net.au/media/medi...ocking-electric-hydrogen-and-cleaner-vehicles
Is he suggesting threads stay on topic ...? Novel idea...That's how we roll........
The Renault media site
https://en.media.groupe.renault.com/
https://en.media.groupe.renault.com/
excuse me while I attempt to get this thread back on track (and that's not a train track by the way)
The building between Waverly Renault and BMW is being redeveloped and has Volvo all over it so I guess that's the direction it's going.
I don't know where Ateco warehouse is.
The guy at Waverly complained he couldn't even get a battery yesterday and Supercharge supply them to Renault. Ateco haven't made that connection yet,
For what it is worth I've written to Ateco asking what they propose to do about the invisible Renault dealer near us in Perth. They are hiding in a Suzuki dealership and I can't even find a car in a showroom. No effective signage. The prominent Renault dealership building they left is being rebadged Tesla..... They are completely useless to me.
Be interesting to see whether I get a reply.
Be interesting to see whether I get a reply.