East–west rail corridor, Australia

East–West rail corridor, Australia

Sydney Sydney–Brisbane railway Sydney–Melbourne railway Main Suburban line Parramatta Main Western line {{BS3||BHF| Broken Hill NSW/SA border Broken Hill-Crystal Brook line to Adelaide & the Melbourne–Adelaide railway Crystal Brook Adelaide-Port Augusta railway Port Augusta Trans-Australian Railway Tarcoola Adelaide–Darwin railway Trans-Australian Railway SA/WA border Trans-Australian Railway Kalgoorlie Eastern Goldfields Railway Northam Eastern Railway Perth

The east–west rail corridor is a standard gauge railway that runs across Australia starting in Sydney, linking the Eastern states to Western Australia.^[1] The Indian Pacific passenger service operates along the route, as do a number of local passenger services.

The route is made up of a number of individual railway lines constructed by various government railway authorities since the 1880s, the most significant portion being the Trans-Australian Railway which connected between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta. It was not until 1970 that gauge conversion was carried out and through trains were possible along the entire route.^[2]

The rail corridor has an 81% share of land freight between the Eastern States and Perth, up from 60 percent in 1996–97,^[3] and saw a record 3.46 billion gross tonne kilometres of freight carried in November 2007.^[4] Major freight operators on the corridor include Pacific National, Aurizon, and SCT Logistics.

References

Notes

1. "Another record East West haul" (PDF). Links. Australian Rail Track Corporation. November 2006. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
2. "National Railway Museum Port Adelaide – Rail History". www.natrailmuseum.org.au. Archived from the original on 2008-03-23. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
3. "ARTC – News – NSW Lease 2004 Summary". www.artc.com.au. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
4. "ARTC – East West Rail Freight Record Tumbles". www.artc.com.au. Retrieved 2008-04-06.

Bibliography

• Avery, Rod (2006). Freight Across the Nation: The Australian Superfreighter Experience. Brisbane: Copyright Publishing Co. ISBN 1876344474.