The Golden Triangle of Aotearoa's Upper North Island is home to 40% of the nation's population with huge flows of people and freight. Electrifying its rail could make a real difference to its mobility
A good strategy would have been to keep the electrification teams on after Pukekohe was finished , and continue on southwards. Tuakau first, then Pokeno , then Mercrer , and so on. but no , we dismantle it all, and start again at great expense. although , to be fair, a contract signed now may be cheaper than a contract signed a year or 2 ago , due to the almost total collapse of ongoing construction work .
"rail dominates freight flows between Mount Maunganui/ Tauranga and Hamilton".
Rail dominates the metroport , steel mill , and maybe Forestry freight flows , but carries almost no "general" freight. even empty containers go by rail between the ports. A search of you tube videos of trucks going over the Kaimai road will show how much goes by road. Hopefully electrification would change this, and make road more competitive.
Great article. How much of the ECMT would need to have OLE you think and you mention signalling how advanced do you think like ETCS 1 or 2 or something else?
At a guess, at least as far as Morrinsville as the trains should be able to run for 80 kilometres or so on battery power. As to signalling, ETCS level 1 is required for all trains in the Auckland network and ETCS level 2 is needed to maximise City Rail Link capacity. If we went to ETCS level 2 on electrified sections, that would avoid the need to immunise line side signals against electro-magnetic radiation.
Strangely hard to imagine a time when electric trains will be able to run all the way from Wellington to Auckland on an electrified rail corridor... Let alone to Tauranga as well! Here's hoping we live to see the day.
Or maybe we should go all in with China and ask them to do the job?
You could be interested to sit in the Hamilton Centre place picture theatre when a train, preferably carrying steel or similar heavy load, goes through the tunnel underneath. Not forgetting the rail bridge over the river. Take in to consideration the age of the materials and the technology(sic) of the time. Oh!. By the way, the HCC have just restored the sides of the track alongside the road at the tunnel's northern entry at, allegedly about 1M.
A good strategy would have been to keep the electrification teams on after Pukekohe was finished , and continue on southwards. Tuakau first, then Pokeno , then Mercrer , and so on. but no , we dismantle it all, and start again at great expense. although , to be fair, a contract signed now may be cheaper than a contract signed a year or 2 ago , due to the almost total collapse of ongoing construction work .
"rail dominates freight flows between Mount Maunganui/ Tauranga and Hamilton".
Rail dominates the metroport , steel mill , and maybe Forestry freight flows , but carries almost no "general" freight. even empty containers go by rail between the ports. A search of you tube videos of trucks going over the Kaimai road will show how much goes by road. Hopefully electrification would change this, and make road more competitive.
Great article. How much of the ECMT would need to have OLE you think and you mention signalling how advanced do you think like ETCS 1 or 2 or something else?
At a guess, at least as far as Morrinsville as the trains should be able to run for 80 kilometres or so on battery power. As to signalling, ETCS level 1 is required for all trains in the Auckland network and ETCS level 2 is needed to maximise City Rail Link capacity. If we went to ETCS level 2 on electrified sections, that would avoid the need to immunise line side signals against electro-magnetic radiation.
Ty
How much more expensive is ETCS L2 compared to L1 out of curiosity?
Managed decline, because supporting railways is "cultural Marxism".
Strangely hard to imagine a time when electric trains will be able to run all the way from Wellington to Auckland on an electrified rail corridor... Let alone to Tauranga as well! Here's hoping we live to see the day.
Or maybe we should go all in with China and ask them to do the job?
You could be interested to sit in the Hamilton Centre place picture theatre when a train, preferably carrying steel or similar heavy load, goes through the tunnel underneath. Not forgetting the rail bridge over the river. Take in to consideration the age of the materials and the technology(sic) of the time. Oh!. By the way, the HCC have just restored the sides of the track alongside the road at the tunnel's northern entry at, allegedly about 1M.
Read Bulls Bridge collapse