This is what Hot Rails is all about – twenty-two kilometres of near-straight, near-flat railway corridor just begging for some trains that can really take advantage of it. We don’t need to do anything to this alignment – just upgrade and duplicate the existing track, put in some decent fences…
The line winds between hills, road and river in the picturesque Lake Bathurst valley, with the minimum radius of 800m of the first few curves unfortunately not quite meeting our requirements. Despite being wedged between highway and hillside, most of the curves do not turn through a very great angle,…
This sector follows the existing alignment through the Mulwaree River valley. While the first half is straight and uses the existing alignment exclusively, subsequently two minor deviations (albeit requiring four bridges) are required to straighten some very tight curves. Major earthworks are confined to the final few kilometres before Tarago. Alignment…
Although it is probable that rollingstock will be constructed specifically for any new HSR-capable railroads, it is far cheaper to develop a variant of an existing class of railcar than an entirely new design. This post will look at some of the existing technology that might fit our needs. The…
How do you solve a problem like Canberra Station? It’s in completely the wrong spot, and they went and built a lake and a few suburbs between the existing line and the city centre. How do we get there without resorting to a tunnel?
The line reaches its highest point of about 812m above sea level in the early part of this sector, and then descends the far side of the range down into Bungendore.
A deep cutting or tunnel is the only way to avoid the tight curves near Kowen Forest.
The existing track through the Molonglo Gorge is one of the most difficult sections of the entire existing line. It is extremely tight, with radii as small as 240m limiting speed to 60km/h or less. For this reason, few previous proposals have considered an easterly exit from Canberra. While straightening…
Although a major rationale for Hot Rails is re-use of the existing rail corridor, there are numerous places in which the existing corridor is not straight enough to enable high-speed use, no matter the degree of cant or tilt adopted. In these sections land will still have to be acquired….
Although Hot Rails will not specify any power infrastructure, we will include some cost estimates of it here all the same. AECOM13 AECOM13’s estimates are detailed in the table below; the total cost of $5.2 billion comes to an average of $2.975m/km. [table] Element,Cost,Unit,Frequency Modify existing substation,$5m,Each,As needed New transmission…
