[Aus] Fastest Freight Train?

["Alan Shaw" <brindabella@primus.com.au>]

Hi all,
In this month's Trains magazine, there's a very interesting article on part
of the BNSF main line from Chicago to LA, with the claim that it's the
world's fastest freight railway. According to the article, the fastest
schedule end-to-end has an average speed of just under 70km/h. Now while
over that distance such an average is pretty fast, but I was wondering
whether the "fastest in the world" is really true. Does anyone have
comparative figures to share of the fastest average speeds for freight
trains in Australia - and to keep the comparison a bit simpler let's limit
the field to trains travelling more than 500km. Now I know there are
probably lots of provisos in these sorts of comparisons but I'd be
interested in the results. Mind you, the BNSF result is very impressive when
you consider the line evidently boasts 80 intermodal trains a day. Eighty a
day - imagine going to your favourite train watching spot outside a suburban
network and seeing a freight every twenty minutes or so!

Alan
Brisbane