Rail transport in Queensland

Queensland Rail B12 Steam locomotive No. 14 on the Central Line in 1878.

Queensland Rail SMU 265 at Nambour station on 10 March 2009.

Rail transport in Queensland began in 1865. Today it is one of the largest narrow gauge railway network in the world.

History

Construction

Main article: Construction of Queensland railways

Electrification

Main article: Rail electrification in Queensland

Public float

Main article: Public float of QR National

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, and formed into a new company called QR National Limited. The new structure was announced by the State Government on 2 December 2009, and will in place from 1 July 2010.

Infrastructure

Track gauge

See also: Rail gauge in Australia

The nascent Queensland Railways was persuaded that the way to build low cost railways was to use a narrower gauge than the standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in). A prototype existed in Norway. The proposed narrow gauge railway would have very sharp curves of 5 chains (100 metres) on the long climb to Toowoomba at about 900 meters (3,000 ft) above sea level. If the railway could only manage a top speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), then it was thought that it would be sufficient for a hundred years.^{[citation needed]} One of main advantages of a narrow gauge railway is that less earth has to removed from hills and mountains during construction.

The choice of the non-standard narrow gauge was and still is controversial, and the choice was approved very narrowly by parliament.^{[citation needed]} Thus the die was cast for a large narrow gauge system, which was copied by three other Australian states and many other countries besides. A hundred and fifty years later, Queensland is still sparsely populated (4 million in 2005), but many trains hauling coal are some of the longest and heaviest in the world.^{[citation needed]}

The original light and cheap Queensland Railways was designed for operation at 15 mph or 20 mph.

Train stations

For details of stations, see the following articles

• North Coast railway line, Queensland
• Southern railway line, Queensland
• South Western railway line, Queensland

Operators

Historically the government owned Queensland Rail has been the main rail operator in Queensland.

Sugar tram near Ingham mill

IMU 109 at the International Terminal on its way to the Domestic Terminal.

The exception has been the standard gauge link from New South Wales into Brisbane, since completed in 1930 it was operationally a part of the New South Wales system and run by their government owned railways, even though the line itself was owned by Queensland. 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.

It was not until 2002 that QR entered the standard gauge market through subsidiary Interail, by 2004 they were running freight services from Brisbane through to Melbourne. Today standard gauge freight services are operated by Pacific National after their acquisition of National Rail, and QR subsidiary QRNational.

On the narrow gauge Queensland Rail operates all passenger services and haul the majority of freight. In 2005 the first non-QR narrow gauge commercial rail operation started in Queensland, with Pacific National Queensland (a subsidiary of 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 their own right. Standard gauge passenger services are provided by the New South Wales based CountryLink using their XPT.

Sugar tramways

Queensland Railways sold a line in 1964 to the Gin Gin Cooperative Mill who converted it to a sugar tramway. A number of tramways of 610 mm gauge for the transport of sugar cane have operated in Queensland as private concerns, associated with the relevant sugar cane mill. These tramways are quite advanced technically, with hand-me-down rails cascaded from the normal rails, remote-controlled brake vans, concrete sleepers in places, and tamping machines in miniature. The twenty or so separate tramways cooperate in research and development.

Airtrain

The first Brisbane Airport rail line, named Airtrain, officially 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 QR to provide rolling stock for the rail line.

Rollingstock

Passenger

Citytrain

An SMU at Nambour railway station

For City train services, Queensland Rail's rolling stock is electric, air-conditioned, were constructed locally in Maryborough, and are no older than thirty-three years:

• Electric Multiple Units (EMU) - 87 in service (88 built)
• Suburban Multiple Units (SMU)
  • 200 Series (SMU200) - 12 in service (12 built)
  • 220 Series (SMU220) - 30 in service (30 built)
  • 260 Series (SMU260) - 36 to be in service
• Interurban Multiple Units (IMU)
  • 100 Series (IMU100) - 10 in service (10 built)
  • 120 Series (IMU120) - 4 in service (4 built)
  • 160 Series (IMU160) - 28 to be in service
• InterCity Express (ICE) - 8 in service (8 built)

All Citytrain trains are electric multiple units with a driver cabin at both ends, with the exceptions of EM60 through to EM79 having only one cab at one end. All are configured with three cars, except for the ICE sets that are usually configured with four, five or six cars.

Long distance services

One of the two diesel tilt trains in Queensland

Long-distance services are operated by Traveltrain, a division of Queensland Rail. Traveltrain services mainly cater to a tourist market.

• Tilt Trains
  • The electric Tilt Train runs from Brisbane to Rockhampton
  • The diesel Tilt Train runs from Brisbane to Cairns.
• The Sunlander also runs from Brisbane to Cairns, however is hauled by a diesel locomotive and is incapable of reaching the high speeds of the Tilt Train.
• The Spirit of the Outback runs from Brisbane to Longreach.
• The Inlander travels from Townsville to Mount Isa
• The Westlander travels from Brisbane to Charleville
• Tourist Trains
  • The Gulflander travels from Normanton to Croydon
  • The Kuranda Scenic Railway services Cairns to Kuranda
  • The Savannahlander services Cairns to Forsayth

Locomotives

Diesel

• English Electric 1200 Class
• English Electric 1250 Class
• English Electric 1270 Class
• English Electric 1300 Class
• Goninan/IGE 1150 Class
• Walkers/IGE 1170 Class
• Clyde/GM 1550 Class
• English Electric 1600 Class
• English Electric 1620 Class
• UGL Rail/GE 5000 Class
• UGL Rail/GE 6000 Class
• QGR/Stephenson-Hawthorns/Walkers – DL Class

• Clyde/GM 2300 Class
• English Electric 2350 Class
• Clyde/GM 2400 Class
• Goninan/GE 2600 Class
• Goninan/GE 2800 Class
• Clyde/GM 1400 Class
• Clyde/GM 1450 Class
• Clyde/GM 1460 Class
• Clyde/GM 1502 Class
• Clyde/GM 1700 Class
• Clyde/GM 1720 Class

• Clyde/GM 2100 Class
• Clyde/GM 2250 Class
• Clyde/GM 421 Class
• Clyde/GM 422 Class
• Clyde/GM 423 Class
• Clyde/GM G Class
• Clyde/GM X Class
• EDI/EMD 4000 Class
• EDI/EMD 4100 Class
• Walkers/Caterpillar DH Class

Electric

• Comeng/Hitachi 3100/3200 Class
• Walkers/ABB 3500/3600 Class
• Clyde/Hitachi 3300/3400 Class
• United Group Rail/Siemens 3700 Class
• Walkers/ABB 3900 Class

See also

• Rail transport in South East Queensland
• Rail transport in Australia
• List of Queensland steam locomotives

External links

• Queensland Rail
• History of Queensland Rail
• Queensland Government