Transport in Australia

From Free net encyclopedia

Transport in Australia is a highly significant part of the infrastructure of the Australian economy, since the distances are large and the country has a relatively low population density.

[edit]

Railways

Main article: Rail transport in Australia Image:Looking east on the trans australia line from cook.jpg Image:IP Livery NR28.jpg

The railway network is large, comprising a total of 33,819 km (2,540 km electrified) of track: 3,719 km broad gauge, 15,422 km standard gauge, 14,506 km narrow gauge and 172 km dual gauge. Rail transport started in the various colonies at different dates. Privately owned railways started the first lines, and struggled to succeed on a remote, huge, and sparsely populated continent, and government railways dominated. Although the various colonies had been advised by London to choose a common gauge, the colonies ended up with different gauges.

[edit]

National rail services

The Great Southern Railway, owned by Serco Asia Pacific, operates three trains: the Indian Pacific (Sydney-Adelaide-Perth), The Ghan (Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin), and The Overland (Melbourne-Adelaide) [1]. NSW owned CountryLink services link Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne via Sydney. Since the extension of the Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin was completed in 2004, all mainland Australian capital cities are linked by standard gauge rail, for the first time.

[edit]

State and city rail services

There are various state and city rail services operated by a combination of government and private entities, the most prominent of these include V/Line (regional trains and buses in Victoria); Connex Melbourne which operates the Melbourne suburban railway network; RailCorp operating all passenger rail services in New South Wales including (CityRail and CountryLink); and Queensland Rail (QR) operating TravelTrain and the CityTrain network, South-East Queensland's commuter railway network under the TransLink scheme. A full list can be found the main rail transport in Australia article.

[edit]

Mining railways

Four heavy-duty mining railways carry iron ore to ports in the northwest of Western Australia. These railways carry no other traffic, and are isolated by deserts from all other railways.

[edit]

Cane railways

In Queensland about 15 sugar mills have narrow gauge (610mm/2' 0" gauge) cane tramways that deliver sugar cane to the mills.

[edit]

Highways

Image:Hume Hwy (NSW) Distances Updated.gif Main article: Highways in Australia

The Australian Highway System is broken up into 3 different categories for rural Australia:

Federal Highways
State Highways
and Local Roads

Small Information from the CIA world fact book

The road network is again extensive, comprising a total of 913,000 km broken down into:

Paved: 353,331 km (including 13,630 km of expressways)
Unpaved: 559,669 km (1996 estimate)

[edit]

Waterways

8,368 km, mainly for small, shallow-draft craft.

[edit]

Pipelines

There are several pipline systems including:

Crude oil: 2,500 km
Petroleum products: 500 km
Natural gas: 5,600 km
Water
- Perth to Kalgoorlie
- Morgan on the Murray River to Adelaide, Whyalla, Port Lincoln

[edit]

Ports and harbours

Image:Sydney Ferries DSC01594.JPG

[edit]

Merchant marine vessels

The number of merchant marine vessels totals 57 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 1,657,194 GRT/2,206,574 DWT. With bulk ships (28), cargo (4), chemical tankers (4), container (1), liquified gas (4), passenger (2), petroleum tankers (8), roll-on/roll-off (6) (these are 1999 estimates).

[edit]