(Back to Home page for a quick overview)
We can introduce trucks (and cars) on trains here too.
The Europeans call this a “rolling highway” or RoLa– cars and trucks drive on and off flat bed rail wagons at the beginning and end of a journey. This is a very viable proposal, instead of a four/five lane divided road carriageway through Blackheath and Medlow Bath. The rolling highway would have terminals at Marangaroo and St Marys as both are close to main roads. A cheaper alternative to St Marys would be to make minor alterations to the existing intermodal at nearby Rooty Hill, which is currently used only by Holcim.
See how it works here: Rolling highways between Austria - Italy and Austria - Slovenia
What will it cost?
Hundreds if millions of dollars (compared to thousands of millions for the proposed road expansion). See below for rough estimates.
What will be involved?
Very little initially.
Extend the wires (catenary) from Bowenfels to Marangaroo – 3.5km
Acquire flat bed rail wagons for drive on / off
Purchase new high powered locomotives[1]
Construct intermodal terminals at Marangaroo and St Marys or Rooty Hill. IMTs for rolling highways require little more than a hardstand area, several spur lines and weighbridge etc) and the Rooty Hill siding is only used by Holcim for a maximum of 4 trains per day.
Schedule more passenger rail services and promote them widely
Quadruple the rail line between Penrith and St Marys (from 2 to 4 lines) - this is already being planned by TfNSW as part of the expansion of St Marys into a transport "hub".
Add power stations to cater for new high powered electric locomotives
Possible need for power conversion from DC to AC for part of the line (Penrith to Lithgow)
Technical Note on Infrastructure.
The trucks on trains will have the same “loading gauge” (height and width) as current rail carriages[2]. Note that this will initially limit the height of trucks to about 3.5 m depending on the diameter of the carriage wheels and the floor height (in Austria and Germany they vary from 350 to 410mm).
Minor modifications to tunnels and other structures, however, as has been done to accommodate the new Regional Rail Fleet [3], such as notching in the Ten Tunnels , will allow truck heights of 4m, as is the case of most of Europe. The new passenger fleet (D sets, due in 2021) will replace the V sets which has required some structures from Springwood to Lithgow to be widened. Major stations like Katoomba, Mount Victoria and Lithgow have also had platform length extensions. A bridge between Penrith and Emu Plains was replaced.
There may be weight and length restrictions too but these can be overcome by using shorter trainsets and banking locomotives, as well as passing loops.
Gradients and Curves
The Blue Mountains line is at the full extent of gradients for freight with a ruling gradient of 1.33 (3.1%) between Valley Heights and Katoomba. An equivalent route is the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy where the ruling gradient is also 1.33[4]. A rolling highway has been in operation on that route for many years.
Power
The current Sydney system is 1500v DC, and the Blue Mountains line may require a change to 25v AC depending on weight of trains. AC would provide more power than DC to cater for the grades between Valley Heights and Katoomba. This means that electrical sub stations and catenary may need replacing / upgrading. Only the Blue Mountains line from Penrith westwards would need conversion (much of the infrastructure on that part of the line is old and would benefit from replacement).
However,
"significant technological changes in diesel electric locomotives. In particular, these changes to greater efficiency, “gripping” power and reliability to the locomotives create vastly improve the capability of moving freight on the long 1-in-30 grades on the Maldon-Dombarton line. The original plan in the 1980s required the electrification of the line but, by 1996, electricity charges had increased significantly, making electric-powered locomotives less economic compared to the diesel ones.
Operators such as Pacific National no longer use electric locomotives and, if the Dombarton-Maldon line was electrified, there would be considerable difficulties finding commercial electric locomotives to service the line. Diesel-powered locomotives offer relatively greater flexibility in that the only restrictions on its deployment will be axle loadings."
(Source: Maldon-Dombarton Rail Line Pre-Feasibility Study for Port Kembla Port Corporation 2007.)
NOTE: the maximum gradient on the Blue Mountains is 1-in-33, slightly less steep than Maldon-Dombarton
However it was considered necessary to use electric locomotives that can be done.
In Europe, some locomotives are equipped to operate under four voltages - 25 kV AC, 15 kV AC, 3,000 V DC and 1,500 V DC. Modern electronics makes this possible with relative ease and cross voltage travel is now possible without changing locomotives.
The new D sets are 1500v DC and they too would need some retrofitting / conversion to dual voltage (1500vDC and 25kv AC) and there are now AC traction systems suitable for conversion of any type of DC rolling stock. The same company that does this is also involved in the consortium responsible for the new regional fleet. [5]
[1] Switzerland and Austria allow freight trains on 3% steep tracks, equivalent to the ruling gradient on the NSW Main West Line.
[2] Eg. the V-set trains: Height is 4.38m, width is 2.93m.
The maximum height of a train in NSW is 4420mm,
The maximum width is 2930mm. Source: TfNSW Technical Note – TN 005: 2019 p.7
The maximum height of a truck on a flat bed rail car would be about 3900mm
Standard ISO dry containers are (2.3m) wide, (2.3m) in height, thus allowing a container could be accommodated on a truck with trailer height up to 1.6m high
[3] https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects/current-projects/new-intercity-fleet-springwood-to-lithgow-rail-corridor-modifications
[4] https://www.railjournal.com/in_depth/moving-mountains “The existing line has a maximum gradient of 3.1% and a minimum curve radius of 264m.” [1:33]
[5] https://www.cafpower.com/en/services/railway-modernisation-upgrade/dc-ac-upgrade and https://gateway.icn.org.au/project/4442/tfnsw-regional-rail?st=projects&psid=1572239121
Please note that it is very difficult to give any firm idea of the total cost of rail projects in Australia as the data is not readily available in the public domain. The figures below are rough estimates.
Locomotives: eg. Siemens Smartron @ $4-5 million x 20 $100m[1]
Low floor wagons @ $1m x 100 (5 consists) $100m
Catenary(and substations): 110kms x2 @ $2m / km $ 500m[5]
Conversion of 55 new D sets (50%) to dual voltage $ 50m
Add dual voltage to Regional Fleet (19 power cars) $ 25m
Quad St Marys to Penrith 8km including
relocation of Werrington and Kingswood stations
16km of track @ $12m/km and 2 stations @ $400m each $ 1000m[2] [3]
Intermodal at Marangaroo (3 sidings 500m long, roadworks) $ 50m[4]
Intermodal at St Marys or modifications to Rooty Hill Holcim IMT) $ 100m
Road works at St Marys / Rooty Hill Holcim IMT [6] $ 100m
Rough total $ 2000m (using electric traction)
If not using electric traction take off about $500 = $1500 million Or without quadding of Penrith to St Marys about $800m +/-
Ongoing costs
Incentives for freight forwarders and weekend visitors to Blue Mountains.
[1] Cost of Smartron locomotive in 2018 was €2·5m = $4.1m AU
[2] may not need to be done initially, depending on train path availability between Penrith and St Marys; Port Botany Rail Line Duplication cost $400 for 3.5km which involves considerable bridge / underpass work and traffic diversion working in a congested brownfield site.
[3] “NSW construction cost per track kilometre was $48 million. The rest of Australia average cost per track kilometre, (based on 4 projects), was $27 million. However, it should be noted that the sample set contained both greenfield and brownfield and passenger and freight rail projects and projects also differed markedly in size. “p. 7 Infrastructure - Project Cost Benchmarking Study NSW Department of Transport 15 June 2011 Greenfield???
[4] Passing loops at Rydal and Georges Plains, each 1.8kms long - $21.5m in 2019, c. $6m/km including turnouts
[5] Cost of conversion of Lisbon to Cascais (Portugal) from DC to AC in 2020: 25km double track cost €77m ($125mAU for 50 track kms or $2.5m / km)
[5] $115m Cabramatta Rail Loop
Reform road pricing system: distance, time and location based rather than on a one off rego / fuel excise charge.
First, use annual odometer readings but make it optional. People can choose the old system, and for flexibility have GPS system which only stores kms and not temporal-spatial data.
Later introduce time and location based charges in addition to first step
So if you then want to drive your car to Blackheath for the weekend you will pay extra, OR if you take the train you will pay nothing.
Letter to SMH 7th May 2021
On average, more than $1000 per vehicle is spent each year on roads and related infrastructure for the benefit and safety of all motorists. This revenue must be raised by some form of taxation. The best solution is a charge per kilometre calculated from GPS tracking of the vehicle. This allows a higher charge in certain areas of a city such as the CBD to discourage entry. A danger is that if the running cost of electric vehicles becomes almost zero, fewer commuters will use public transport and roads will become even more gridlocked. Geoff Harding, Chatswood
European Example Brochure Timetable
https://rola.railcargo.com/dam/jcr:ffff705b-b522-4085-92cb-83b9053d0ef3/2023-frachtpreisheft.pdf
Future Transport 2056 Extract
p. 96 "Optimising the network and better using existing infrastructure"
Comment: So why isn't a rolling highway a part of the plan?