Rail transport in Queensland


The rail network in Queensland, Australia, was the first in the world to adopt narrow gauge for a main line. In 2013, it claimed to be the second largest narrow gauge network in the world. The network consists of the following lines:
Passenger services include:
The Translink network consists of approximately 300 km and 151 stations.

History

Construction

Construction of the Queensland rail network began in 1864 with the first section of the Main Line railway from Ipswich to Grandchester being built. This was the first narrow-gauge main line constructed in the world and, in 2013, was claimed to be the second largest narrow-gauge railway network in the world.

Network extent

At its maximum extent in 1932, the system totalled ~10,500 km of routes open for traffic.
In 1925, QR employed ~18,000 people, 713 locomotives, 930 passenger carriages, ~16,000 goods wagons, hauled ~five million tons of goods and ~30 million passengers, and made a return on capital of 3.2% before depreciation.

Electrification

Three significant electrification programs have been undertaken in Queensland which include the Brisbane suburban network, the Blackwater and Goonyella coal networks, and the Caboolture to Gladstone section of the North Coast line.

Public float

On 2 June 2009, the Queensland Government announced the 'Renewing Queensland Plan', with Queensland Rail's commercial activities to be separated from the Government's core passenger service responsibilities. The commercial activities were formed into a new company called QR National Limited. The new structure was announced by the Queensland Government on 2 December 2009, and took place from 1 July 2010.

Infrastructure

Track gauge

The nascent Queensland Railways was persuaded that the way to reduce the cost of railway construction was to use a narrower gauge than the standard gauge of. A prototype existed in Norway, but Queensland became the first rail operator in the world to adopt narrow gauge for a main line. The proposed gauge railway involved a axle load and very sharp curves of radius on the long climb to Toowoomba at about above sea level. The maximum gradient was 1 in 50 uncompensated, which combined with a radius curve gives an equivalent grade of 1 in 41. Although the proposed railway could only manage a top speed of, that was claimed to be sufficient for a hundred years.
One of the main advantages of a narrow gauge railway is that the earthworks required do not have to be as extensive as on railways of larger gauge. It was estimated that the cost of this standard of railway would be 25% of the cost of a standard gauge line built to the minimum standard considered possible with that gauge at the time. This was a vital consideration since the colony of Queensland had a non-indigenous population of about 30,000 at the time. Standard gauge branch lines were later constructed in NSW with radius curves and had the same low maximum speed.
The choice of the non-standard gauge, approved very narrowly by parliament, was and still is controversial. Thus the die was cast for a large narrow-gauge system, which was copied by three other Australian states as well as a number of other countries. Queensland's decision to use narrow gauge was influential on New Zealand's decision to adopt narrow gauge as its uniform gauge in 1870.
A hundred and fifty years later, Queensland is still sparsely populated, but many trains hauling coal are some of the longest and heaviest in the world, with Aurizon currently trialling coal trains of 25,000 tonne gross load that are ~4.5 km long.

Rack railway

QR had one rack railway, with grades as steep as 1 in 16.5, which was on the branch to Mount Morgan. It was bypassed by a conventional line in 1951 with grades of 1 in 50. The bypass closed in 1987. The rack system was the Abt rack system, the same type used by the Mount Lyell Railway in Tasmania.

Operators

Historically, the government-owned Queensland Rail has been the main rail operator in Queensland. The exception has been the standard-gauge link from New South Wales into Brisbane. When opened in 1930, it was operationally a part of the New South Wales system and run by that government-owned railway, under agreement with Queensland which owned the line. From 1994, National Rail took over the operation of virtually all standard-gauge freight services to and from Brisbane, as part of a reorganisation of interstate freight in Australia.
In 2002, QR entered the standard-gauge market through subsidiary Interail, by 2004, it was running freight services from Brisbane through to Melbourne. Today, standard-gauge freight services are operated by Pacific National after its acquisition of National Rail, and Aurizon.
On the narrow gauge, Queensland Rail operates all passenger services. In 2005, the first non-QR narrow gauge commercial rail operation started in Queensland, with Pacific National commencing operation of container services between Brisbane and Cairns, followed in 2009 by their entry into the export coal market. Queensland Rail's subsidiary Australian Railroad Group have also entered the Queensland narrow-gauge freight market, operating trains between Townsville and Mount Isa in its own right. Standard-gauge passenger services are provided by the New South Wales Government's NSW TrainLink using its XPT.

Airtrain

The Airport railway line opened to passengers in May 2001. Under a BOOT scheme – build, own, operate and transfer – the Queensland Government licensed Airtrain Citylink to build the rail line, to own and operate it, and hand the entire infrastructure over to the Queensland Government after 35 years when the company will then cease to exist. Airtrain Citylink contracted Transfield Services to build, operate and maintain the line and finally Airtrain Citylink contracted Queensland Rail to provide rolling stock for the rail line.

Aurizon

In 2010, the Queensland government privatised the narrow gauge freight haulage and all standard gauge components of Queensland National. In 2012, the organisation renamed itself Aurizon.

Pacific National

In March 2005, Pacific National Queensland became the first non-Queensland Rail narrow gauge commercial rail operation in Queensland, with the commencement of container services between Brisbane and Cairns. They now operate intermodal services to various destinations along the coast of Queensland. In 2018 they became responsible for sugar haulage in Central and North Queensland.

Watco Australia

On 16 August 2019, Watco Australia announced that the first two of eight WRA Class locomotives units were being delivered to Australia. The company have stated that they would begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2019. WRA001 and 002 arrived at the Port of Brisbane on the vessel Tarago on 9 October 2019 and were transferred to Warwick behind QR locomotive 1724.

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance

is a 50/50 partnership between the two named companies, operating 9 coal mines in the Bowen Basin. BMA Rail was authorised to operate on the Goonyella coal network from 1 January 2014, and purchased 13 Siemens E40 AG-V1 electric locomotives, designated as the BMACC class, numbered BMACC001-BMACC013. It has the potential to operate its own trains if contract haulage rates from either Aurizon or Pacific National are unacceptable.

Tramways

Except where noted, this section relates to sugar cane lines in Queensland built to narrower than gauge, and in this section the term ‘narrow gauge’ means a gauge less than. Non sugar cane tramways covered by their own entries are:
  • Aramac Tramway
  • Ballara Tramway
  • Beaudesert Shire Tramway
  • Belmont Tramway
  • Buderim Tramway
  • Cooloola Tramway
  • Innisfail Tramway
  • Laheys Tramway
  • Mapleton Tramway
  • Mill Point Settlement Site
  • Stannary Hills Tramways
  • Munro Tramway
Sugar cane tramways were usually developed in conjunction with sugar mills as the major transport system for conveying harvested sugar cane for processing. As this is a seasonal traffic, minimising cost was a significant consideration, and the adoption of gauge enabled lines to be laid with minimal earthworks, sharp curves, and sometimes temporarily in cane fields so cut cane can be loaded directly onto wagons.