Signal technology upgrade between Yass and Cunnigar a boost for North South rail line

A historic infrastructure milestone will be reached between Yass and Cunnigar NSW this weekend, with the removal of the last section of turn of the century trackside signal technology and the insertion of modern signal infrastructure.

The final stage of a program to replace old Upper Quadrant (UQ) signals between Yass and Cunnigar will see the last 26 UQ signals replaced with 20 colour light LED signals.

The weekend operation is the culmination of a $5.5 million upgrade strategy on the North South rail corridor between Picton and Cunnigar to replace 70 UQ signals, technology from the earliest years of the rail network, with 60 colour light LED signals.

ARTC Chief Executive Officer David Marchant said the upgrade of the signal technology builds on the work already completed on the North South rail corridor and will contribute to increased efficiency on the line as well as increased capacity and shorter transit times between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

“ARTC is pushing forward with our plans to upgrade the Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne corridor and make rail transport more competitive.  The replacement of outdated signal technology between Picton and Cunnigar is another important milestone in the north-south strategy to cut the transit time from Melbourne to Sydney to as low as 10 hours 40 minutes and 15 hours 35 minutes between Sydney and Brisbane,” Mr Marchant said.

“The investment in this corridor upgrade will see rail becoming competitive, and as each 1500 metre long train can replace 100 semi trailers we could see less trucks on our major roads,” Mr Marchant said.

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