Further upgrades to the Southern Highlands line will take place this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The work is part of the Australian Rail Track Corporation’s (ARTC) $40 million re-railing investment along the Highlands railway line.
The re-railing work is 100 per cent funded by the ARTC and is part of a major program focused on supporting the reliability of train services between Goulburn and Macarthur (NSW).
This package of re-railing works is largely taking place around Maldon, Tennessee, Mittagong and Bowral as part of a broader maintenance shutdown taking place.
“Around $4m in work is being delivered this weekend and all up we are looking to install around 18 kilometres of new rail,” General Manager Asset Management - Interstate Brian Green said.
“The re-railing will be at six work sites using a number of contractor teams, with up to 300 largely locally employed people engaged in the work.”
The maintenance ‘shutdown’ involves the re-railing project as well as various track maintenance and improvement works right throughout the Southern Highlands railway corridor and will take place from 10pm Friday, February 2 through to 2am Monday, February 5.
“We are very conscious of the concerns of our customers operating through the Southern Highlands and remain focused on working closely with them to improve train reliability,” Mr Green said.
“Pleasingly, we have seen positive results due to the re-railing and other work ARTC has already delivered between August and December, but there is more to do.”
The last work program in early December successfully delivered 17km of re-railing improvements. After the weekend work, around 49km of re-railing will have been completed as part of the project.
Maintenance works take place during a track ‘shutdown’ as it provides a safer and more efficient environment to deliver the work. This is because there are fewer trains running and a clear window for maintenance crews to deliver more work in a shorter period of time.
Night works are involved, with machinery and equipment in use at various locations during this period.
Disruptions will include rail unloading on the Friday evening, re-railing through Saturday and inspections and proving the track over Sunday evening.
“We apologise for any inconvenience the work causes and thank the community for its patience while this essential maintenance work is delivered,” Mr Green said.