QR National opens billion dollar rail project

QR National chairman John Prescott said the company had created an “extraordinary growth opportunity” for the Australian resources industry by bridging the 69km gap between the Goonyella and Newlands rail systems.

“We’ve created a capacity increase on the Newlands system of up to 50 million tonnes per year, as well as provided the platform for potential future expansions of 200 million tonnes and more,” Prescott said.

The GAP project, in combination with QR National’s other committed expansions, would deliver an extra 70 million tonnes of rail capacity over the next three years.

“This means QR National’s Central Queensland Coal Network will have the capacity to move more than 300 million tonnes of coal per annum by 2015,” Prescott said.

QR National chief executive Lance Hockridge said GAP was a genuine transformational project that had been on Queensland’s infrastructure wish-list for over three decades.

The 20-month construction of GAP was achieved a month ahead of schedule, despite the challenges of Queensland’s extraordinary wet weather in December 2010 and January 2011, he added.

“QR National, together with our alliance partners, has weathered floods, fire, a cyclone and even a small earthquake to deliver one of the nation’s largest railway projects on budget and ahead of schedule,” he said.

Executive vice president Network Michael Carter explained that construction of the Northern Missing Link was the central component of the GAP project, coupled with major upgrades to the existing Newlands and Goonyella coal systems.

Carter said the GAP expansion had been initiated for two reasons – to support customers’ expansion requirements on the Goonyella system and to align with developments at the Abbot Point Coal Terminal.

“The GAP project enables up to 50 million tonnes of coal a year to be railed to the upgraded Abbot Point Coal Terminal, which is double the present capacity,” he said.

“Higher capacity 106-tonne wagons can also begin operating on the Newlands System, effectively increasing coal haulage volumes by almost 2,000 tonnes per train.”

Carter said the project had been a windfall for regional communities with more than $12m a week invested in Central Queensland over the two-year life of the project.

“Approximately 800 jobs were created during GAP’s construction, with additional jobs created in local communities servicing and supplying the work sites,” he said.

Further work to finalise the GAP project would continue through to mid-2012, including completion of additional works on the Briaba section and upgrades to existing track in the Newlands system.

QR National has worked with alliance partners CoalConnect, Coal Stream, Aspect3 and Synergy to deliver the GAP project on behalf of five foundation customers, QCoal, Rio Tinto Coal, BMA, Middlemount Coal and Lake Vermont Resources.