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110 hours of major maintenance and renewal work will take place at the end of this month keeping the Hunter railway network safe for passenger and freight trains.
Executive General Manager Hunter Valley Jonathan Vandervoort said ARTC maintenance and construction work pumps over $100 million into the local economy every year – supporting local jobs, businesses and communities.
“From Monday 21 November to Friday 25 November ARTC will deliver more than $20 million worth of maintenance work, renewing and upgrading track, ballast, sleepers and structures like bridges, culverts and level crossings right through the Hunter Valley,” Mr Vandervoort said.
“Hundreds of passenger trains run on our network every week or around half of all trains in the Hunter Valley – and the maintenance work we do is critical to keeping these trains running safely and reliably – at no cost to the taxpayer.”
ARTC staff and contractors will deliver more than 100 projects during the ‘mega maintenance shutdown’ along hundreds of kilometers of the rail network which not only connects the Hunter Valley’s world famous coal operation from the ‘pit to the port’, but countless towns and regional cities.
“We are proud of the role we play in connecting the Hunter Valley both economically and socially, by providing a transport lifeline throughout the Valley and beyond to Central and North West NSW,” Mr Vandervoort said.
“We also support NSW farmers and regional producers, and with grain harvesting season nearly upon us – it’s essential we conduct this work now to enable our farmers to get their export products to Port.
“That’s why these network-wide track maintenance works are so important because it is essential we run safe, reliable operations for the wide variety of customers that use, and rely on, our network.”
The intricately planned maintenance work will see everything from full track formation reconstructions take place, replacement of rail turnouts, new rail being laid, level crossing improvements, ballast cleaning, rail corridor tidy up works and signalling maintenance completed.
“By closing sections of track for an extended period we can deliver more work, faster and importantly in a safer environment for track workers,” said Mr Vandervoort.
“We’d like to thank the community for their patience with us while this important work is delivered and we also ask motorists to take extra care and be cautious of trucks entering and exiting work sites.”
This massive package of maintenance work is taking place to allow us to avoid major works over the Christmas – New Year holiday period. The first major shutdown in 2017 will be in late February.
ENDS
Media Contact: Bas Bolyn, ARTC, 0477 340 658
Visit our new online trackwork calendar at www.artc.com.au/community/track-work/
Passenger trains: Buses replace trains between Scone and Maitland. Each night, buses also replace trains between Telarah and Hamilton then continue to Newcastle. Visit http://www.sydneytrains.infofor more information or www.nswtrainlink.info for details on how longer distance services are impacted to Moree and Armidale.
Road Closures
Due to important maintenance works taking place during the shutdown there will be some road closures and detours in place at some key intersections and busy roads along the Hunter Valley network.
This includes:
- Work to the rail bridge in Farley resulting Wollombi Road, Farley being closed on Monday 21st November from 6:00am to 6:00pm Friday 25th November. During this maintenance period the road will be closed continuously for access from both sides. Detours will be in place via Old North Road and Station Lane.
- Maintenance works on the track which will involve the level crossing on Kenilworth Street, Denman being closed on Monday 21st November from 6:00am to 7:00pm Tuesday 22nd November and the level crossing on Ogilvie Street, Denman being closed from 7:00am to 5:00pm Wednesday 23rd November.
If you are planning to travel through these areas, please plan for additional travel time and avoid these locations around the proposed dates and times.
About ARTC in the Hunter Valley
- ARTC employs over 330 people in the Hunter Valley. Our staff are based locally, live work and play locally in locations throughout the Hunter Valley and Central West NSW
- Our company makes a direct economic contribution into the broader Hunter Valley economy of more than $100 million per year.
- We directly and indirectly support thousands of local jobs through contract labour and railway worker hire, accommodation, local general stores, vehicle, equipment and plant hire, quarry materials and much, much more.
- Our Hunter Valley network moves coal, general freight, bulk freight and passengers – around 240 trains per day. Around half of these services are passenger trains, trains loaded with coal for export to overseas markets, part of our role in supporting one of the world’s largest coal export operations make up the majority of the balance of the operations.
- We operate and maintain the existing Interstate and Hunter Valley rail networks through the revenue we earn from our customers. We charge rail operators a fee to run trains on our tracks, and we then in-turn use this revenue to ensure the network is safe, reliable and to pay for maintenance and operation costs.