Re: Train Order working

["WhaleOilBeefHooked" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

michael ostrowski <mfo@netwit.net.au> wrote in message
37f4912c@nap-ns1">news:37f4912c@nap-ns1...
> Trains do close to 120 kms/h over the Orange-Broken Hill line, if the
track
> was as poor as you are saying we would not have the growth in East-West
> traffic we are currently seeing. Train order working would cut time down
as
> trains would not have to slow down between towns, etc, to exchange the

They do more than slow down - they stop. The safeworking is staff and
ticket, and crews work their own trains through. The only time a train does
not have to stop is when it crosses another train - the crew of the first
train will work the second train through, so the second train will not have
to stop.

> staff, also saving fuel. Most of the track between Parkes and Broken Hill
is
> straight and would not require the level of maintenance that other lines
do,
> such as Sydney-Brisbane.

Quite right - one of the problems is that the line has been allowed to
deteriorate. It will take a fair amount of money to bring it back up to
scratch. Once this is done, however, the relatively low traffic levels and
the nature of the line (in terms of gradients and curvature) mean that very
little maintenance is required to keep it to that standard.

> From what I have been hearing, communications problems are the main thing
> delaying train order working and any thing about the line being so poor is
> just crap. Do any speed restrictions even exist on the line?

I believe the communications issue is a furphy as well. If the USN (and the
RAN, for that matter) can have secure communications with units deployed
across the world, why is it so hard with trains on a given stretch of line?
Also, looking at the TAR, if they can operate train orders across the
Nullabor, there is no reason why it cannot be done from OAG-BHQ. Oh, that is
right, Australian railways have to reinvent the wheel, don't they.....

DaveP