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Bringing High Speed Rail a step closer - Building a Railway for the 21st century
This presentation outlines a proposal for the development of a Medium Speed Rail (MSR) corridor between Sydney and Canberra as a technology tester for High Speed Rail in Australia.
Bringing High Speed Rail a step closer - Building a Railway for the 21st century
- 1. BUILDING A RAILWAYFOR THE 21st CENTURY BRINGING HIGH SPEED RAIL A STEP CLOSER Max Michell, Scott Martin and Philip Laird
- 2. HIGH SPEED RAILIN AUSTRALIA IS A STEP CLOSER - OR IS IT? • The 2013 report to the Federal Government recommended the first stage by 2035 – more than 20 years off. • That wait will have long since seen the demise of existing East Coast passenger rail outside the urban and commuter areas. • How can we get High Speed ready while waiting for the real thing to eventuate – some thoughts and proposals in response to this conundrum. Heading
- 3. WHAT IS HIGHSPEED RAIL?
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- 9. WHAT IS MEDIUMSPEED RAIL? • MSR is a passenger rail system that is capable of running at 160 km/h or better over extended distances. • MSR is an intermediate technology between classic rail and HSR – can be an end in itself or as a stepping stone to HSR • Australia is at best at the lower end of MSR – XPT, V/locity, Diesel and Electric Tilt
- 10. HSR IS AHIGH CAPACITY SYSTEM – NEEDS HIGH VOLUME TRAFFIC FLOWS TO SUCCEED:- • Needs to run between large population centres. • Needs to feed from other land based transport including Medium Speed Rail (MSR) and urban rail. • Can replace or complement air travel so needs to be able to interchange at airports.
- 11. IF HSR ISA LONG WAY OFF HAS MSR A PART TO PLAY IN AUSTRALIA? • Could act as precursor to HSR. • Could help retain longer distance rail in public consciousness. • Could enable short sections of eventual HSR alignment and/or infrastructure to provide a useful interim service. • Could help to change land travel culture to include rail. • Could include potential HSR feeder routes.
- 12. MSR today –Victoria • Regional rail network has 160 km/h running on Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong lines. • Rail transit times car competitive on speed and frequency • Significant long-term investment in track and rolling stock • Some potential for further improvement
- 13. MSR today -Queensland • Narrow gauge 160 km/h electric & diesel tilt trains on North Coast Line (Brisbane- Rockhampton-Cairns) • Modest infrastructure investment across 1700km-long corridor limits train overall speeds & frequencies • Potential for significantly upgraded rail infrastructure on parts of the corridor
- 14. • XPT trainsnow 30 years old but only NSW trains capable of 160 km/h • XPT services limited to three main lines (South, North Coast, West) with low frequency and low transit speeds. • No known plans for XPT replacement or track improvement MSR today – NSW
- 15. WHERE MIGHT MSRBE ADOPTED • Notable that none of the Melbourne – Sydney – Brisbane route has had any alignment improvement. • Largest non capital city population is Newcastle area at 421,000, or 738,000 if you include the Central Coast. • Closest capital city pair is Sydney (circa 5 mill) and Canberra area (412,000) • Both these are on future HSR route.
- 16. SYDNEY – NEWCASTLE •High frequency but low speeds – typical semi-fast transit is 2h 27m to Broadmeadow (66 km/h); XPT best 2h 15m (72 km/h) • Short-term improvements to alignment, new rolling stock and better pathing to increase train speeds and reliability could reduce travel times for ‘semi-fast’ trains to 2h 0m (81 km/h) • Long-term travel times could reduce further to 1h 30m (105 km/h), but requires major infrastructure upgrades and high- perfomance rolling stock
- 17. SYDNEY – CANBERRA •Potentially the best candidate for Australian MSR development • 30 flights (40 mins) and 15 bus departures a day (3h 30m) are main competitors with rail (~4000 seats offered each way / day) along with car • Medium-term infrastructure upgrading to HSR alignment standard is achievable in stages • Route to North Canberra has long-term synergy with Sydney – Melbourne HSR route
- 18. CANBERRA TO SYDNEY– SUMMARY • Distance reduced from 321km (via Tarago) to 270km (via Yass) • Initial operation at 160 km/h with familiar diesel traction • Transit times reduced from current 4 h 6m to 2 h 36m • Transit times further reduced to 2h 0m with upgraded diesel operation to 200 km/h • Eventual electric HSR travel time ~85m-90m • Gains for other regional passenger trains of 70m-75m
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- 20. NORTH CANBERRA TOGOULBURN • New line from new North Canberra station to junction with Main South near Gunning • Realigned route from ‘Gunning’ to Breadalbane • Selective realignment Breadalbane to Goulburn • Distance reduction of 15km (105km → 90km) • Transit time reduced from 90 min → 42 min (save 48 min)
- 21. GOULBURN TO MOSSVALE • Curve easing and selective realignment over much of route • Significant realignment between Marulan - Exeter • Distance reduction 9km (79km → 70km) • Time reduced from 53 min → 37 min (save 16 min)
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- 23. MOSS VALE TOCAMPBELLTOWN • New route Mittagong to Menangle (‘Wentworth’ route) • Selective realignment of remainder • Distance reduction 27km (91km → 64km) • Time reduced from 68 min → 42 min (save 26 min)
- 24. CAMPBELLTOWN TO SYDNEY •Route via East Hills – mostly similar alignment to now • Improvement to junctions at Erskineville, Sydenham, Wolli Ck. • Curve speed improvement where achievable • Additional facilities to allow better pathing. • Distance remains 46 km • Time consistently 30-35 mins (now variable to 45 mins)
- 25. COST FOR MSRSTANDARD RAILWAY • A cost of approximately $3.5 billion has been estimated for the 200km/h standard diesel operated MSR railway. • For full HSR, curves would be flattened to 7000m, towns by- passed, Sydney entry improved, plus electrification and trains. • The 2013 HSR Report suggests $18 billion for the full HSR over the Sydney – Canberra section including a brave amount of tunneling.
- 26. OVERVIEW OF MSRCONCEPT • MSR on or close to future HSR route is possible between Sydney and Canberra – at travel times half those at present • Synergy with trains to Melbourne and Southern and Western NSW – a parallel with French TGV or German ICE running on classic rail routes beyond HSR tracks. • Initial diesel operation allows seamless interoperability with remainder of network.
- 27. OVERVIEW OF MSRCONCEPT (continued) • Keeps regional passenger rail visible & viable pending go-ahead for HSR (alternative is demise of existing routes and services) • Provides design and construct experience with value for HSR project when it goes ahead. • Allows testing of “how can we achieve the best affordable result” rather than the “how much will it cost” of 2013 Report.
- 28. CONCLUSIONS • There ispotential for MSR as the ‘leading edge’ of a full HSR project over appropriate line sections. • Canberra to Sydney is an obvious choice – large populations with high mobility and mature transport options apart from the archaic rail link. • If Sydney-Canberra MSR works, there are other regional links which would benefit; e.g. Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Albury/Wagga Wagga, Newcastle, Wollongong.