Australia
Traction in transition
Years of government ownership, three different rail gauges, industry-specific haulage requirements and the emergence of a plethora of rail operators from post privatisation open- access track regimes has created a diverse, and in part, ageing locomotive fleet in Australia. With deliveries of new locomotives at their highest level for 15 years, Mark Carter reviews the transformation underway and looks at new players entering the supply market.
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NDUSTRY criticism is regularly levelled at Australia’s ageing locomotive fleet. However, this is
rarely viewed in the context of overall industry requirements and fails to take into account recent high levels of production.
The number of locomotives in use
across all spheres of operation is currently around 2100 units. And while around 24% of this total is 30 years old or more, over 33% of the fleet, or some 700 locomotives, were delivered new or
were substantially re-manufactured in the last decade. Of these 542 were delivered in the last five years. Rather than a major fleet regeneration
programme, Australia’s mining boom was the major catalyst for this growth. The new locomotives are used predominately on frontline services leaving the part of the fleet that is in excess of 30 years old for regional freight services on low-volume branch lines and non-revenue duties. The frontline fleet is at present made
up of around 1300 locomotives, with a current average age of 11.6 years, which are used by rail operators for Hunter Valley and Queensland coal traffic, the Pilbara iron-ore railways and intermodal and other bulk traffics using the interstate mainline network. More specifically the average age of the combined Queensland coal fleet operated by Pacific National and QR National is less than eight years, while the Pilbara iron-ore and Hunter Valley coal fleets, operated by various owners,
IRJ November 2012
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