Following a derailment at Gunning (between Goulburn and Yass Junction, NSW) of a grain train on Sunday 10 July in which 3000 sleepers (covering about 1.7 kilometres of track) were damaged on the up line (i.e. towards Sydney), freight trains can only operate on the down line (away fromn Sydney) in this 95 kilometre long section, so there's 'single line working' in force from 1900 hours each evening to 0700 hours the next morning, when the track maintenance contractors move in.
I have noted some grain trains on this line at night, but it's a headache to have restricted operating hours for freight trains as the main western line (Blue Mountains) is also closed due to a landslide near Mt Victoria, and the main northern line through Maitland (also to northwestern NSW) is shut until probably tonight due to severe flooding that's taken a while to recede. Coal trains will be first to resume there: maybe in a day or two, grain can start moving through Maitaldn to Carrington at the Port of Newcastle.
In further bad news, the important Moss Vale - Unanderra (near Wollongong, NSW) line that was to reopen in August won't do so until close to the end of September 2022: this mountainous line had landslides between Roberston (trendy town) and Unanderra. This is the crosscountry link from the NSW Riverina to Port Kembla, NSW.
It's easy to criticise but the Australian Rail Track Corporation needs to pull its finger out, though admittedly, it has never faced simultaneous weather-related landslides, and contractors (like much of business) may also be suffering labour shortages.
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