Three freight lines upgraded
Australian freight operators and farmers will benefit from the completion of upgrade works on three freight lines in north-west Victoria. The AUD 50 million (EUR 37.14 million) projects were carried out over two years on the Mildura, Sea Lake and Manangatang lines to improve the condition of the track and reduce the risk of infrastructure faults which can delay grain loading.
The works included the installation of more than 170,000 new sleepers, the addition of over 30,000 t of ballast to the track and maintenance on more than 8,000 joints between pieces of rail. This also paves the way for 29 km of temporary speed restrictions to be removed on the Manangatang line, slashing travel times for freight trains by 20 minutes.
Mildura line freight trains carry fruit, wine, grain and peas, while the Sea Lake line carries grain and the Manangatang line carries grain, containerised hay and wine from Ultima. (ben)