QUB steel trains affected by rail line lengthy closure, page-7

Following landslip/flooding repairs, the Waterfall to Thirroul section of NSW's south coast rail line reopened yesterday, so a QUB empty steel train is making its way back down to Melbourne's North Dynon QUB rail yard after an absence of many days.

The QUB steel trains must take an indirect route via Campbelltown, Leightonfield, Hurstville and Sutherland between Melbourne and Port Kembla as the more direct rail line from Moss Vale to Unanderra sustained a lot of wet weather damage between the trendy town of Robertson and Unanderra (near Wollongong) from the floods. This crosscountry line won't reopen until August 2022.

While freight trains are separated from passenger trains from Macarthur and Campbelltown into inner Sydney, this isn't the case on the south coast line. There's a Sydney Trains-imposed curfew on freight trains between 0600 and 1000, and 1500 to 1900 hours on 'normal' weekdays, so the QUB steel trains have to operate at other times on this line section.

Nonetheless, good to see these very heavy trains rolling as the alternative of road transport is far more expensive, suffers from a lack of available drivers given few young people want to drive long distance trucks these days, is less safe and does more harm to the environment (not that I am a global warming alarmist: it's nonsense).