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RAA calls for urgent Eyre Peninsula roads fix, amid rail line closure

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    Topic moved from News by bevans on 28 May 2019 13:24
      8077 Chief Train Controller

    Location: Crossing the Rubicon
    Why not send a bill to Viterra for the costs of the road trauma and the road damage and why can't the council prevent these trucks from using the roads.  The cost of road upgrades will be higher than the cost of rail use but maybe just maybe it is not about the rail use but more about the rail operator?

    South Australia is sooo rustbelt they always get stuff backwards.  The government should be mandating the use of rail.

    RAA calls for urgent Eyre Peninsula roads fix, amid rail line closure
    Posted: 28 May 2019 12:58

    Last edited by 8077 on 28 May 2019 12:58; edited 1 time in total

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      bevans Site Admin

    Location: Melbourne, Australia
    Councils would have veto over load limits on roads they maintain meaning large trucks would be banned from using the roads.  if the plan is to use a standard semi and single trailer then how could it be financially viable with those tonnages.  It also takes longer to unload 40 trucks than it would 40 wagons i would suggest?
    Posted: 28 May 2019 13:43
      duttonbay Minister for Railways

    They are using triples to move the grain - three trailers.
    Posted: 28 May 2019 14:16
      bevans Site Admin

    Location: Melbourne, Australia
    They are using triples to move the grain - three trailers.
    duttonbay

    And the council has agreed?
    Posted: 28 May 2019 16:03
      Noelwb123 Station Staff

    They are using triples to move the grain - three trailers.

    And the council has agreed?
    bevans
    They have been using B Doubles and Triples for years. The trucks coming from the north use Liverpool Street
    Posted: 28 May 2019 16:26
      Noelwb123 Station Staff

    Most of my message went astray so I will try again.
    Liverpool Street is the main retail street. B doubles and triples carrying grain use this all year. It is already a significant safety issue but the closure of the railway can only dramatically increase the danger. It is only a matter of time before someone backs out from Woolworths into the path of a B triple.
    There will also be significant traffic congestion issues within the retail area. It is only a small area close to the silos. It won't take long to fill up with trucks.
    Given that there has been virtually no local government or state government response to the closure it is unlikely that any significant road works will occur to alleviate the problem.
    There will also be major traffic delays on roads throughout the peninsula. These are narrow roads without passing lanes. When people get frustrated driving they do stupid things and quite often innocent people get hurt or killed.
    I know this sounds like the whines of a Gunzle but these are real issues and I would be saying the same if I didn't give a toss about trains.
    Posted: 28 May 2019 16:47
      kipioneer Chief Commissioner

    Location: Aberfoyle Park
    Councils would have veto over load limits on roads they maintain meaning large trucks would be banned from using the roads.  if the plan is to use a standard semi and single trailer then how could it be financially viable with those tonnages.  It also takes longer to unload 40 trucks than it would 40 wagons i would suggest?
    bevans
    The roads from the Wudinna, Cummins and Rudall sites are State government maintained roads, not council roads.  Not so much from Kimba if they head straight south to Cleve first.   The road down to Cleve is most likely a council road, and the responsibility of the Kimba and Cleve councils.

    Sealed roads are very expensive to maintain.   There have been examples where a sealed road has been torn up by a council because an unsealed road just needs a grader every so often, and a sealed road much more, particularly if the seal is just that, a layer of bitumen covered with fine gravel and rolled in.

    In either case heavy vehicles do a lot of damage.

    The money the government is finding to upgrade the roads would go a long way to upgrading rail, at least as far as Cummins.
    Posted: 30 May 2019 11:27
      bevans Site Admin

    Location: Melbourne, Australia
    Rail upgrades would have been a lot cheaper in the longer term and a lot better for the environment.  We are in this position because of GWA and their network management.
    Posted: 30 May 2019 12:15
      Dangersdan707 Chief Commissioner

    Location: On a Thing with Internet
    Rail upgrades would have been a lot cheaper in the longer term and a lot better for the environment.  We are in this position because of GWA and their network management.
    bevans
    No, Its because these assets were privatised this was bound to happen
    Posted: 30 May 2019 12:27
      duttonbay Minister for Railways

    Rail upgrades would have been a lot cheaper in the longer term and a lot better for the environment.  We are in this position because of GWA and their network management.
    No, Its because these assets were privatised this was bound to happen
    Dangersdan707
    Indeed. Had GWA spent lots of money on upgrades they would have needed to raise their rates, Viterra (or whoever was the owner of the silos, etc) would have gone looking for something cheaper, and this closure would have happened sooner.
    Posted: 30 May 2019 18:16
      Nightfire Minister for Railways

    Location: Gippsland
    Rail upgrades would have been a lot cheaper in the longer term and a lot better for the environment.  We are in this position because of GWA and their network management.
    No, Its because these assets were privatised this was bound to happen
    Indeed. Had GWA spent lots of money on upgrades they would have needed to raise their rates, Viterra (or whoever was the owner of the silos, etc) would have gone looking for something cheaper, and this closure would have happened sooner.
    duttonbay
    At the end of the day the customer calls the shots, of what they want to do (that's set out by the State Government's regulations)

    Note 70% of grain was trucked to port (rail had a 30 % share)
    Posted: 30 May 2019 18:33
      NG Sulzers Deputy Commissioner

    Location: Quorn
    The EP lines weren't in the best of condition when privatised, hence why privatisation occurred.
    To make any public asset attractive for privatisation, maintenance is severely cut back, which actually misrepresents the true state of the asset. Can hardly blame GWA, they have been, and are doing track maintenance, with rate of deterioration outstripping efforts.
    Posted: 30 May 2019 21:32
      Sulla1 Chief Commissioner

    G&W has owned the Eyre Peninsula network for 22-years, to suggest they haven't made a go of it is pretty harsh - Australian National owned it for only 19-years. With the exception of the gypsum traffic at the western end of the network, this has been a single commodity, single customer network for that entire period, and for an extended time before the G&W takeover.

    Road trains and B-triples have been impacting the economics of moving bulk commodities in regional Australia for the best part of those two decades, and the death of the Eyre Peninsula network is just further evidence that in a static volume market, increasingly larger road vehicles will eventually erode the cost benefits for rail. If rail is to survive in these markets, it has to either find more volumes, or find more commodities and customers - something that is probably very difficult to do in many regions.
    Posted: 31 May 2019 09:59

    Last edited by Sulla1 on 31 May 2019 10:01; edited 1 time in total
      The Vinelander Minister for Railways

    Location: Ballan, Victoria on the Ballarat RFR Line
    My 2cents worth...

    This quote from the Minister...my emphasis.

    Transport Minister Stephan Knoll said the work could include overtaking lanes, road widening, shoulder sealing and other road safety improvements.

    It looks bad for you guys over there. Sadly it's just the current downturn in the transport cycle...and in time, the errors of these decisions will be realised, the current players will have moved on and the rail resurrected to carry the bulk of the load again...sadly though, in the interim, there's likely to be serious casualties.

    Mike.
    Posted: 31 May 2019 10:42
      Noelwb123 Station Staff

    There has [b]not been one[/b] detailed proposal tabled by either state or local government!
    There has been a loose suggestion to convert the last 4km of the track into Port Lincoln into a truck lane[s] but GWA hold the lease on the track/land and appear to be in no hurry to relinquish it. Why would they without some sort of compensation?
    In any event this would only alleviate the truck issues from the west for Port Lincoln. There is no obvious alternative route solution to the trucks coming from the north and there are plenty of other potential problems throughout the peninsula.
    My belief is that there won't be a grain of sand turned on any proposal between here and the next harvest. If there is not a revolt and given that it's in one of the safest Liberal seats in the state that's unlikely, then nothing will be done and the state government will have saved a lot of money!
    Posted: 31 May 2019 13:32
      lkernan Deputy Commissioner

    Location: Melbourne
    https://www.portlincolntimes.com.au/story/6210779/rail-crossing-signs-80-zone-to-remain/
    Apparently signs are already going missing (souvenirs?)
    Interesting that occasional loco movements are still expected. Is the upgraded maintenance facility not ready at the western end yet?
    Posted: 14 Jun 2019 11:03

    Last edited by lkernan on 14 Jun 2019 11:03; edited 1 time in total
      kipioneer Chief Commissioner

    Location: Aberfoyle Park
    This article, also from the Port Lincoln Times, highlights the difficulties arising on the Peninsula.

    New grain plan needed for Eyre Peninsula.

    (Fixed link)
    Posted: 14 Jun 2019 12:07

    Last edited by kipioneer on 14 Jun 2019 12:33; edited 1 time in total
      RTT_Rules Dr Beeching

    Location: Dubai UAE
    Rail upgrades would have been a lot cheaper in the longer term and a lot better for the environment.  We are in this position because of GWA and their network management.
    bevans
    Env wise, I'm not so sure. The trucks have modern clean engines, the same could not be said about the train engines.
    Posted: 14 Jun 2019 12:27
      RTT_Rules Dr Beeching

    Location: Dubai UAE
    The Eyre network has been a rust bucket railway for decades. Their aging fleet of locos's are what ever hand me downs they were given, rollingstock not much better and track maintenance just enough to keep the trains upright in some locations.  For the grain railway to survive it needs a major govt incentive and it didn't get it under ANR or SA ownership for a long long time. As others have posted it was down to transporting 30% of the grain harvested, so the trucking numbers will increase by 50%. I don't think we can blame GWA, they likely did the best they had with what they could.

    Grain has been a struggle for other operations, with lines closing, some reopening, govt subsidises, hand me down rolling stock. One year the trains don't stop, the next year they are being parked up for months at a time due to drought, but the difference was the runs are longer and mostly using tracks funded by other operations. I hope in the future it can be revived, but not holding my breath and hope the Gypsum traffic has a longterm future.
    Posted: 14 Jun 2019 23:31
      Jack Le Lievre Chief Train Controller

    Location: Moolap Station, Vic
    This is one of the two projects that are currently underway that will likely result in fewer trucks on the Lincoln Hwy.

    https://tports.com/lucky-bay/

    The other is the Iron Road Project, Cape Hardy(South of Port Niell). While Iron Road's primary commodity will be Iron Ore there are also plans to export Grain out of there.

    https://www.ironroadlimited.com.au/

    Lucky Bay will solely be served by road, Cape Hardy will be able to see both rail(S/G) and road transport access it for Grain. Iron Road are said to be in discussions with both GWA and Liberty One Steel regarding their two Projects.
    Posted: 15 Jun 2019 00:16

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