Operating a state’s rail network is no easy task – especially when you add severe weather into the mix.
When major floods hit North Queensland in January and February, the rail lines suffered serious damage.
The Mount Isa and North Coast line got the brunt of it, with services suspended while Queensland Rail employees and contractors mobilised to repair 164 sites in total.
The Mount Isa line was particularly bad between Charters Towers and Cloncurry, as the high-pressure water flow had displaced rocks and soil, resulting in some sections of track being suspended in the air.
More than 1.3 kilometres of washouts, requiring 5000 tonnes of ballast, had to be fixed before trains could resume. The line reopened on February 21.
Queensland Rail Head of Regional, Scott Cornish, explained that crews had to wait for flood waters to recede to gain full visibility and safe access to the track.
The North Coast Line was reopened as far as Townsville less than three weeks after the floods, but the section between Townsville and Cairns was closed for a month.
In total, the line suffered damage to nearly seven kilometres of track, with major washouts and scouring requiring culvert repairs, bridge rebuilds, resurfacing works and new formation poured in several locations.
Recovery works were hampered by ground conditions and wet weather, as rain continued to lash the region.
“The North Coast Line runs the length of coastal Queensland and spans 1600 track kilometres, so inspecting and repairing so much track and damage has been a mammoth job,” Cornish said. “We are so pleased that containerised freight, sugar, grain and livestock, as well as our Spirit of Queensland services, can run again from Brisbane to Cairns.
“Queensland Rail continues to invest heavily in our rail lines and when we undertake renewal and maintenance works, we are always focused on increasing the resilience of the network. We know how important this vital link is in connecting our communities and I want to thank our hard-working crews who have done an incredible job.”
Improving response times
Cornish said Queensland Rail is always looking at ways to improve response times to major weather events which impact the rail network, including investing in recovery equipment and new technologies to assist with track inspections.
“Before the onset of the wet season, we undertake a series of assurance activities to ensure network readiness,” he said.
Key tasks include:
Ballast management: Identifying and positioning ballast at critical points across the network.
Flood rock identification: Marking known flood-prone areas and plotting them for quick access.
Mapping key infrastructure: Plotting ballast trains, sleeper locations, culvert materials, and machinery positions on maps to ensure readiness.
Strategic machine positioning: When an incident is imminent, resurfacing machines, trucks and loaders will be strategically deployed to facilitate quick recovery and ensure no equipment becomes isolated.
Weather monitoring: All weather stations are checked. These stations provide live CCTV feeds of low-lying bridges and other problematic areas, as well as real-time water height data for predictive flood management.
FloodMon System: A computer-based modelling system that aggregates data from public and Queensland Rail weather stations to predict river heights. This tool helps operators make proactive decisions about train stabling and network closures based on current rainfall and the effect smaller tributaries might have on the monitored river.
In addition to the above, Queensland Rail continuously assesses past incidents to identify opportunities for flood mitigation, such as strengthening bridge piers, culverts, and other critical infrastructure.
“Understanding the required culvert sizes in relation to changing weather patterns is vital for long-term network protection,” said Cornish.
“Given the scale of the regional network, it’s important to recognise that not every asset can be fully protected. Therefore, reducing recovery times becomes a cost-effective strategy to quickly restore full network functionality.”
Bogged down
Cornish said bog mats – high quality and heavy-duty ground protection that form a temporary roadway for heavy vehicles – allowed Queensland Rail to get onsite during wet conditions and progress works safely and quickly.
“During the recent floods, bog mats provided essential access to otherwise inaccessible sites, which would typically require the construction of full formation roads due to the challenging soil types and heavy machinery needs,’ he said.
“Without them, the reopening of the Mount Isa line would have been delayed at least another week while waiting for the ground to dry out.”
Olly to the rescue
One piece of equipment that was valuable in the cleanup was a special on-track recovery machine or hi-rail bus, nicknamed ‘Olly’.
Olly transported more than 3500 people, including emergency services and local residents, across Ollera Creek and between Ayr and Home Hill, while the track was closed to rail traffic during the floods.
The hi-rail bus entered service at Queensland Rail in January 2015. Originally built by Varley Specialised Vehicles in Brisbane, it was fitted with its rail guidance system by Harsco Rail Brisbane, which enabled it to travel on track.
Olly is an Isuzu FRR 600, medium truck fitted with a four-cylinder diesel engine. It can carry up to 12 passengers including the driver and is usually used by Queensland Rail to undertake track inspections and give train controllers a visual experience of rail conditions and locations they are responsible for.
To date, it has travelled more than 152,000 kilometres on both road and rail. This includes more than 1,300 kilometres during the North Queensland floods alone, reconnecting isolated communities and delivering essential supplies and groceries.
Tapping into technology
In Brisbane and other urban areas of Queensland, the rail network is currently using Instrumented Revenue Vehicle (IRV) technology.
The brainchild of the Institute of Rail Technology at Monash University in Melbourne, an IRV is an intelligent automated condition monitoring tool which is retrofitted to standard rollingstock and integrated into normal railway operations.
The system was developed for heavy haul freight networks and has since been expanded to passenger applications.
IRVs automatically collect dynamic vehicle performance data and identify high risk track-related defects, and the precise locations of the defects. They can send remote data that can be analysed in real time.
This information is used for condition monitoring and targeted economical track maintenance planning, identifying maintenance effectiveness as well as assessing rollingstock performance.
Professor Ravi Ravitharan, Director of the Institute of Railway Technology, said that Queensland Rail has only recently acquired Instrumented Vehicle Technology, but is already using it on the Redcliffe Peninsula and Springfield lines, Ferny Grove and Beenleigh lines, Shorncliffe and Cleveland lines, Caboolture and Rosewood lines.
He thinks the technology could be implemented to great effect in northern Queensland, to help crews locate faults and carry out repairs faster and easier.
“This technology can play a key role in assessing track conditions and system performance for floodwaters and rain-affected areas, ensuring safe train operations,” he said. “Flooding can weaken railway infrastructure, causing track washouts and structural damage that aren’t always visible.
“Monash’s IRV continuously collects data on track alignment, vibrations and stability, helping to quickly identify issues and make data-driven operational and safety decisions.”
Professor Ravitharan added that the IRV also helps keep crews out of harm’s way.
“You don’t have to have people endangering themselves walking in flooded areas,” he said. “Also, even if you have someone on foot inspecting a track, you are not going to know what sort of loads are going to go through unless you have instrumentation.
“The instrumentation gives you an understanding of what kind of load carrying capacity it has got. You can run the IRV at a slower speed than you would usually, to assess the damage.”
Professor Ravitharan said modern railways need to look to the future when it comes to flood recovery.
“We have to start thinking what technologies are available, and how do we actually use the technology in the best way to improve our operations?
“MTR in Hong Kong is thinking ahead and using technology to tell them what is going to happen in the future. They are using it in the Pilbara as well, for heavy haul. But Australia hasn’t really invested on those type of capabilities yet, even though they are available.”
Dr Sabrina Sayers, a research scientist at Monash specialising in drone technology, said Queensland Rail is already making use of drones.
“What they normally do is use a drone to fly over an area after flooding, to see the extent of the damage,” she said.
“They use drones for that immediate overview, but you could be using the data to see how a ballast has moved, for example. You could also create a point cloud or an elevation or temperature model, to see how deep the flooding is.”
Dr Sayers said data from drones could also help with post-flood recovery when it comes to vegetation.
“If you put in ballast or some kind of grading, and you model it over time, you can see how the elevation changes,” she said.
“You could also use radiometric data to tell you how much a slope might move.
“That tells you the moisture content of the soil so you can say, OK, we need to vegetate the area or put in some geotextiles or whatever it is, to help bind it.”
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