The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has detailed plans to improve coal train capacity in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales.
The combined strategy of longer trains and trains that can run closer together is intended to increase capacity, boosting productivity and efficiency for coal mining companies in the region that are reliant on the route. The Hunter Valley coal chain feeds coal to busy export terminals at Port Waratah and Newcastle.
Train length in the Hunter Valley is limited to 1,543 metres at present, but the ARTC stated in a report that increasing train lengths could be “a potentially effective mechanism to increase capacity when implemented in a systematic manner”.
The plans form the backbone of the ARTC’s 2019 Hunter Valley Corridor Capacity Strategy, which looks at ways to provide capacity to meet contracted coal volumes in line with the ARTC Hunter Valley Access Undertaking (HVAU).
“ARTC is continuing to review options for longer trains, and is currently undertaking engineering investigations,” read the report.
“Further modelling will be required to validate capacity impacts and opportunities.
“Subject to the findings of the engineering investigations, ARTC will develop business case assessments of the costs and benefits of providing necessary infrastructure enhancements.”
The ARTC points to in-house technologies such as the ARTC Network Control Optimisation (ANCO) project and Advanced Train Management System (ATMS) as ways to offer significant improvements in efficiency by increasing the use of existing assets through digitisation for a relatively low cost, in keeping with the preference of thermal coal producers.
The ARTC also advised that empty trains travelling on single track sections be allowed to travel at 100km/h. Trains with 120-tonne capacity wagons are currently permitted to run at 60km/h when loaded and 80km/h when empty.
The group said that it would work with operators to undertake analysis and risk assessment to determine the viability of this speed increase.