REGISTER

David Ness

Kinhill Connell Wagner

Joint Venture

National Rail Corporation was formed in 1992 under the auspices of the Federal Governments One Nation Programme. In line with the main objectives of the One Nation Policy National Rail was charged with the planning and implementation of a standard gauge rail linking Brisbane to Perth via each of the State capitals and major east coast population centres. The aim of this link is to enable transnational rail traffic to be hauled uninterrupted by state boundaries.
The enormity of this task should not be underestimated given Australia's historic State parochialism's and 2 previous, but aborted, attempts at unifying our disjointed national rail system. The budget for achieving the enviable goal was set at $153 million for the Melbourne to Adelaide corridor. Although a seemingly generous sum at face value a per kilometre break down results in an average budgetry expenditure of approximately $125,000 dollars per kilometre. As I am sure many of you would be aware when it is considered that much of the works required to enable single gauge running involve not only civil and trackworks, but roadworks, land acquisition, level crossing and pedestrian protection, as well as signalling issues, the sum is in fact far short of what even the most hard pressed State Authorities would anticipate for any similar upgrading of it's own infrastructure.

This obvious shortage of funds, as well as problems arising due to the inevitable conflicts between the desires of National Rail and those of the various State Rail Authorities, local and State Governments and other public pressure groups have created a project driven by compromise more than pure engineering rationale. The Belair - Goodwood Corridor, as much as any other portion of the project reflects each of these various factors and has shaped the planning, design and implementation of the necessary works in a way that might not normally be envisaged.

The following outline of the project works aims to detail the ''whys" and "hows" of the
Belair - Goodwood standard gauge resignalling works.