Re: [SA] Adelaide hills line

[lbrown2@bigpond.com (Brown Family)]

On Sun, 03 Dec 2000 05:49:48 GMT, James C. <james_ccj@my-deja.com>
wrote:

>
>> Obviously it didn't go anywhere, but we certainly put in weeks of work
>> on train simulations. The main thrust at that time was reducung train
>> times MEL-ADE to below 14 hours. Track speed was proposed at 140km/hr
>> and the main route was ADE - Freeling - Murray Bridge - ART - MAR -
>GLG
>> - MEL
>> where
>> ADE=Adelaide
>> ART=Ararat
>> MAR=Maroona
>> GLG=Geelong
>> MEL=Tottenham via a new line from Laverton that followed the sewer
>> reserve until it hit the TOT-Newport goods line.
>
>The running time between Adelaide-Melbourne is 10 and half hours now.
>With potential for 9 and half hours now with 115kph.
>I wonder how fast the train can be with the bypass.
>
I think it can go quite a bit faster if the appropriate by-passes are
built. I think an ideal target would be to get passenger timings down
to eight hours or less.

As well as deviations in S.A., there are two deviations in Victoria I
can think of that would also help. They are:

1/ Stawell-Horsham. Roughly following the Western Highway. Currently
Stawell to Horsham via Murtoa is about 80 kms. By cutting directly
across to Horsham and bypassing Murtoa, the route is about 15kms less,
thus saving at least 10 minutes, most likely more than that.

2/ Sunshine-Ararat, ideally bypassing Ballarat itself. Whilst NCR can
justify standardising the Cressy line for slow freight, such
justifications cannot apply to passenger trains and time-critical
freight services such as Trailerail. Eventually some other way of
getting to Ballan from Bacchus Marsh is going to have to be built,
that avoids the horseshoe curve. Assuming that some other way will be
built, this will reduce the Kms between Melbourne and Ararat from 267
kms to about 210kms. This means a saving of about 15-25 minutes
depending on load and motive power.

Together with deviations in S.A. and improvements in signalling and
crossing loop length and spacing, eight hours would be very
achievable.

Les Brown