Ann: Aurizon secures major national freight contract, page-76

The Saturday Melbourne to Perth AZJ for TGE intermodal train is (as at 0823 AEST on Monday 24 July 2023) 'in the hole' (railway slang for 'stopped in a crossing loop') at Nurina, Western Australia on the Nullarbor for the weekly 'Indian Pacific' transcontinental passenger train from Perth to Adelaide/Sydney to pass by.

The 'IP' with its lazy timetable is running 36 minutes early but AZJ's freight train outpaces it, being more than 12 hours early. This may not occur every week.

I assume the train crews were ready to go early from Adelaide, as yesterday it departed from Dry Creek at about 1015 hours mid morning instead of the timetabled 1820 hours in the very early evening. The AZJ intermodals have a relay van (ex-passenger car fitted with sleeping berths, shower and a kitchenette) so that one train crew can be driving the locos while the other crew rests, and then they swap by arrangement.

While the train may sit in Kalgoorlie WA for longer, it's good to see continued excellent reliability and punctuality from these new AZJ cross-continent intermodal trains with their valuable containerised loading, basically anything required in Perth and the rest of WA that we could think of (and many items that wouldn't come to mind).

It's early days but if she's occasionally monitoring, there's a good chance Christine Holgate of Team Global Express would be pleased with AZJ's performance to date across the lonely and sometimes very windy Nullarbor Plain.