THE upgrade of the railway line between Ararat and Maryborough is nearing completion, with 80 kilometres of track being replaced.<\/p>\n
Local residents would have seen crews working along the line in recent months.<\/p>\n
The line between Ararat and Maryborough has been problematic since the Murray Basin Rail Project was completed.<\/p>\n
The use of old railway tracks \u2013 some 100 years old – meant speeds on the section of line were dramatically reduced.<\/p>\n
The upgrade started in May with around 40 contractors involved in the project.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Transport Minister said the project will replace 20 kilogram rail with 47 kilogram rail.<\/p>\n
The upgrades to a higher standard of track will enable all types of freight trains to operate with heavier loads, increasing load capacity for all wagons by 15 per cent \u2013 to 21 tonne axle loading.<\/p>\n
Works will enable 49 weekly return train paths on the Murray Basin network, up from the current 28 paths \u2013 an increase that will remove around 20,000 truck trips off regional roads each year.<\/p>\n
Design work and procurement is also underway on further upgrades, including new crossing loops and sidings, improvements to Maryborough junction and signalling upgrades.<\/p>\n
Work of the Ararat-Maryborough line is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The government says the Murray Basin Rail Project will support 1,000 direct and indirect jobs during delivery, and provide a major boost to the transport industry, agricultural sector and regional communities.<\/p>\n
Minister for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne said the upgrade will see more freight moved along the line.<\/p>\n
“These works and our investments across the freight network mean heavier and faster trains, bringing costs down for our primary producers and exporters and making it easier to get products to market,\u201d Minister Horne said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE upgrade of the railway line between Ararat and Maryborough is nearing completion, with 80 kilometres of track being replaced.
\nLocal residents would have seen crews working along the line in recent months.
\nThe line between Ararat and Maryborough has been problematic since the Murray Basin Rail Project was completed.
\nThe use of old railway tracks \u2013 some 100 years old – meant speeds on the section of line were dramatically reduced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/rail-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-m3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1367"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}