Could we have oil on rail up the centre?
new oil fields coming on stream in the NT could this be traffic?
So what do we think?Sorry for the lat reply!
Could we have oil on rail up the centre?
new oil fields coming on stream in the NT could this be traffic?
The answer would be no, normally oil fields are connected to there consumption point by pipe lines. IN the NT there is already throusands of kilometres of gas pipe lines, a crude oil pipe line to a tank farm at Port Darwin would be no problems.Finally use the Oil Tunnels for their intended purpose! Wasted on tourists.
woodford
There Is no way the old WW2 oil tunnels would hold oil to the EPA's requirements, presides the Darwin heavy Industrial port has relocated to East Arm Berrimah.The answer would be no, normally oil fields are connected to there consumption point by pipe lines. IN the NT there is already throusands of kilometres of gas pipe lines, a crude oil pipe line to a tank farm at Port Darwin would be no problems.Finally use the Oil Tunnels for their intended purpose! Wasted on tourists.
woodford
Wasn't the Port of Darwin supposed to create the new growth in freight rail? What happened to FreightLink??
... We can always mine more yellow cake and load it on wagons....
Wasn't the Port of Darwin supposed to create the new growth in freight rail? What happened to FreightLink??Yes they hoped the new port and railway would be used for land bridging of containers to Southern Australian markets (saving days on shipping times to say Singapore)
If it's not time sensitive, the superior efficiency of a ship wins that contest hands down.Yes pretty easy for ships to continue their ocean going journey around the Australian coast.
This will sound very much in hindsight, but I still difficult to accept that so many actually believed the whole "Land bridge" sales pitch. Was any market research actually done? Even at the time there was mass criticism in RP about the use of lighter rail and limited number of passing loops (I think originally spaced 400km apart) because of the huge amount of traffic that was supposed to come.Wasn't the Port of Darwin supposed to create the new growth in freight rail? What happened to FreightLink??Yes they hoped the new port and railway would be used for land bridging of containers to Southern Australian markets (saving days on shipping times to say Singapore)
But shipping agents weren't happy with the rail freight costs for trans continental land bridging (they found the longer journeys of ocean going ships much more economical)
FreighLink only ended up carrying local NT goods.
I have a copy of what constitutes the business case. If you thought business cases of today were sketchy, the ones back then were not much more than marketing documents.This will sound very much in hindsight, but I still difficult to accept that so many actually believed the whole "Land bridge" sales pitch. Was any market research actually done? Even at the time there was mass criticism in RP about the use of lighter rail and limited number of passing loops (I think originally spaced 400km apart) because of the huge amount of traffic that was supposed to come.Wasn't the Port of Darwin supposed to create the new growth in freight rail? What happened to FreightLink??Yes they hoped the new port and railway would be used for land bridging of containers to Southern Australian markets (saving days on shipping times to say Singapore)
But shipping agents weren't happy with the rail freight costs for trans continental land bridging (they found the longer journeys of ocean going ships much more economical)
FreighLink only ended up carrying local NT goods.
On the positive side, despite the financial struggles, the company did very well quickly grabbing ~90% of the domestic land based N-S freight and has proven an enabler for some mines to start up, even if short lived and long-term others will surely follow.
Boroloola has been in the news lately with cyclone Trevor doing the rounds. The McArthur river zinc mine (nearby) website, says it has a long future ahead of it. The ore is currently stockpiled at the site and taken by road train to the nearby coastal settlement of Bing Bong. It is a croc infested swamp on the satellite image. There has been a channel dug into the gulf and swamp for boats to take the ore away. Any chance it might be trucked to the main north south line instead (for Darwin), especially since there is a real prospect of contamination? I assume there is a stockpile on the mine site because it can't get loaded onto the boats efficiently, especially during the wet season.I'm guessing the ore gets shipped to Townsville for processing ?
Boroloola has been in the news lately with cyclone Trevor doing the rounds. The McArthur river zinc mine (nearby) website, says it has a long future ahead of it. The ore is currently stockpiled at the site and taken by road train to the nearby coastal settlement of Bing Bong. It is a croc infested swamp on the satellite image. There has been a channel dug into the gulf and swamp for boats to take the ore away. Any chance it might be trucked to the main north south line instead (for Darwin), especially since there is a real prospect of contamination?No.
I assume there is a stockpile on the mine site because it can't get loaded onto the boats efficiently, especially during the wet season.Wrong.
We've disabled Quick Reply for this thread as it was last updated more than six months ago.