Re: Overland to continue 4 another 2 years

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

On Sat, 09 Jun 2001 04:41:03 GMT, "Peter Berrett"
<pberrett@optushome.com.au> wrote:

>
>This surprises me.
>
>I thought that the line past North Geelong had been upgraded with concrete
>sleepers.
>
>This begs a question. Leaving aside regulations and simply looking at the
>capacity of the existing line to carry a train at speed. What express
>timings would be possible with a tilt train eg a Talgo or a Pendolino? This
>would save a little bit of time in the Adelaide Hills

Not really , the Adelaide hills has 10 and 12 chain radius curves.
You simply cant go fast around these curves even with tilting.
When the SRA trialled the tilt train between Sydney and Canberra , the
time saved between Canberra and Goulburn was in the main saved due to
manning the stations , not much was saved due to the tilting.
Its simplistic in the extreme to simply take the whole distance and
divide by 8 .
Some parts of the journey have very low speed limits.
Spencer St to Newport takes 30 mins for a distance of 10 km, average
speed 60 km/h .
Nothing can be done to improve this short of completely re routing the
line .
Going thru Nth Geelong there are 40 km./ h curves and restrictions
where the dual guage track starts and stops , same at Gheringhap.
There is a 40 km/h curve at Maroona .
There are no cheap solutions to bypassing the Adelaide Hills.


>
>850 km/8 hours = around 106 km/hour average. Surely the line would in places
>permit 130 kmh running if not 160kmh.
It probably would , but average speed isnt top speed .
The Sydney - Melb XPT covers the 317 km from Spencer St to Albury in 3
hours with 2 stops , travelling just about all the way at 130 km/h .
Average speed = 105 km/ h .

For Melb to Adelaide , 30 mins Spencer St to Newport (10 Kms) and 90
mins Murray Bridge - Keswick (100 kms) means that the rest of the
journey ,740 km needs to take no more than 6 hours , average speed =
123 km/h .
Not possible with a max of 130 km/h  but just possible with max speed
of 160 km/h .
Currently in VIC , 160 km/h isnt allowed at all.
8 hours in the best now you can do , without massive track
improvements and this just isnt practical for 2 trains a day.
Besides , what evidence is there that reducing the travelling times
will equate to a huge increase in patronage .
Unless the times can bne reduced to around 3 hours (VFT type speeds)
then its simply not worth it.

MD



>
>Turning to the technology of the line itself, what would need to be done to
>upgrade it for 160 km/hr running? Is it signalling, heavier rail, what is
>the principal limiting factor and are there some less costly solutions that
>would lead to increased speeds?
>
>cheers Peter
>
>"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
>3b20ab7c.41808577@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3b20ab7c.41808577@can-news.tpg.com.au...
>> On Fri, 08 Jun 2001 09:10:12 GMT, "Peter Berrett"
>> <pberrett@optushome.com.au> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >At XPT speeds it would take a lot less time than that surely. Adelaide is
>> >not that far (I'm assuming a no stops, express service)
>> >
>> >cheers peter
>>
>> Melb - Adelaide is 850 Km of which the last 100 Km from Murray Bridge
>> to Adelaide prevents any kind of hi speed running due to the sharp
>> curves, min 12 chain radius.
>> 8 hours is about the absolute best an XPT could do given 160 KM/H
>> running , which currently isnt allowed in Victoria at all.
>> Getting from Spencer St to Newport is slow as is Nth Geelong , Maroona
>> and Ararat.
>>
>> MD
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
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