REGISTER

Akshaya Malaviya, MIRSE B.Tech. PG Dip Management

Engineering Manager, 
Australian Rail Track Corporation

David Sweeney, FIRSE Grad. Dip Eng.

Signalling Consultant, Calibre Global

Coal volumes on the Hunter Valley network are steadily increasing and have gone up by about 50% in the last six years. The volumes are expected to increase to 200+ mtpa (Million Tonnes Per Annum). Based on the coal volume forecasts, the Hunter Valley Corridor Capacity Strategy (the Strategy) identifies projects to be delivered to ensure the network capacity stays ahead of the demand.

The Strategy includes infrastructure upgrade projects involving track duplication/triplication and building of new crossing loops. The Heavy Haul Guidelines, in conjunction with the ARTC standards, form the basic framework for the Civil and Signalling designs on the projects delivered by ARTC in the Hunter Valley corridor.

Although track upgrade projects provide the desired capacity increases, recent investigations have established that signalling enhancements, in some situations, can also provide equivalent capacity increases at significantly lower costs.
Hunter Valley corridor is currently delivering the following economic signalling enhancement projects aimed at achieving capacity benefits:
    1.    Kooragang Island Arrival Roads Signalling Optimisation;
    2.    Hexham to Kooragang Re-signalling;
    3.    Coded track circuit enhancements;
    4.    Mount Thorley Signalling Enhancements; and
    5.    New crossing loops with signalling solution to achieve simultaneous entry functionality.

The coal trains originate from various mines located in the Hunter Valley region and travel up to the Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) and Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) ports near Newcastle. Whilst the single track section north of Muswellbrook is capacity constrained necessitating construction of new crossing loops, the Ports area is heavily congested due to convergence of entire coal traffic into that region and slow clearance of dump stations and the arrival roads leading up to these dump stations.

This paper first analyses the constraints in the Ports area leading to congestion and shows how these constraints have been overcome by using economic signalling enhancements. The paper then discusses how the crossing transit times at crossing loops can be optimised by using an economic signalling design referred to as Modified SIM entry. Lastly, the paper details the issues associated with the Coded Track Circuit designs and how they can be addressed.