Former Inter-connecting railway (SECV) Morewell

gippslander · Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 11:10 am

Traralgon is still the major train stabling point in Gippsland, with 13 return passenger movements to Melb each weekday (the Bairnsdale log train and Sale fast track conmtainers are a daily late night feature) Traralgon loco depot and turntable is intact and there a still quite a few drivers and train crew members based there.

Someone mentioned the cuts to Gippsland services - at least that has been turned around with freight trains returning to Bairnsdale in 1999 after five years of closure, passenger services to be restored to Bairnsdale by mid 2003 and Leongatha by late 2004. However, it is a pity that there appears to be little effort in seeking out new freight business - the highways are clogged with heavy trucks!

Rob

freightgate · Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 11:17 am

gallop3 · Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 12:00 pm

yeh
must agree there
it was a criminal act closing the orbost line which has been taken over by road transport
back in 1979 there was 2 trains a day out of orbost with full load every day with timber for housing developments
the official excuse was the cost of maintaining the trestle bridges between
bruthen and nowa nowa
its more likely someone in the govt at the time had an interest in road transport exactly similar to what happened to the frankston-mornington
railmotor services being canned for buses
they even tried to close the stony point line to passenger services but the local residents won the war there
cheers
ian

gallop3

zipitidoodah · Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 10:17 pm

I agree totally. You could almost sit next to the highway and point to a truck every 10 seconds and say "yep, that could be going by rail"

I see loaded log trucks going along the highway, and then you realise that two of those could fill one wagon in a train, in some cases three. When you have a thirty-wagon log train, that takes a fair number of trucks off the road.

But of course truckies will whinge about jobs and everything like that...

http://zipitidoodah.fotopic.net

gallop3 · Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2003 8:11 pm

yeh fully agree there
railway workers once had jobs too
trouble is the lcl freight doesn't pay
all they want is block trains and intermodal freight where the customer
in most cases is paying for air freight and has no idea their freight is actually going by train to sydney
contrans and tnt have been doing this for years
the freight is in sydney the next morning and no one is the wiser
unless there is a derailment or whatever then the freight is conveniently missing until the train gets there
cheers
ian

gallop3

R 761 · Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2003 9:55 pm

R 761 · Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2003 10:03 pm