How do you design a railway to safely deliver a freight train down an impossibly steep slope? For a recent Canberra to Eden proposal, the answer lay in history.
Since the earliest days of Canberra’s planning, a railway to the port of Eden was considered essential.
Back then, as is still argued today, it made clear economic sense. But there was a very serious problem in the form of a mountain range, and its precipitous — in terms of railway engineering — drop down the formidable terrain of the New South Wales South Coast Range to the deep-water harbour of Twofold Bay.
A railway was constructed, but only from Canberra’s neighbouring town of Queanbeyan to Bombala, on the inland side of the ranges and within 100 kilometres of Eden by road. Completed as far as Cooma in 1889, that line was closed exactly 100 years later.
Today, its rotting, rusting sleepers and tracks serve as a wonderland for bushwalkers, mountain bikers and historians from the Australian Capital Territory and its surrounds.
However, a plan has been put forward to breathe new life into that line, and to complete the construction of the railway to the port of Eden, as originally planned more than a century ago.
It’s a proposal that boldly solves the riddle of how to get freight trains safely down the mountain, minus the massive and prohibitive expense of tens of kilometres of tunnelling. And the economic argument still stands, too.
Solving an engineering puzzle
When engineer and economist Edwin Michell, founder of independent consultancy Stormcloud Engineering, was first approached by the Cooma and Monaro Progress Association (CMPA) to develop a concept plan for the Canberra to Eden railway, it was partly as a result of Michell’s work on his own website, hotrails.net.
Hot Rails is an advocacy and engineering blog that looks into faster rail in Australia, and how it can be achieved at much lower cost than what is generally being proposed.
“There is so much rail infrastructure in Australia that is literally rotting in the ground,” Michell said.
“These rail lines were originally built at great expense and with much hope for the future. However, in the second half of the 20th century, they were progressively abandoned. But the corridors are still there and still, I believe, have great potential for the next wave of infrastructure investment in this country.”
The CMPA, having seen on the website some work Michell conducted on the Sydney to Canberra line, asked if he could look into a proposal for Canberra to Eden, via Cooma.
“Their reasoning was because Eden has one of the best deep-water ports in Australia,” Michell said.
“There are really only four practical deep-water ports in New South Wales — Port Botany, Port Jackson, Newcastle and Wollongong – and they’re all at capacity and all suffer transport bottlenecks through Sydney. They’re at their natural limitations, so the rationale is to open a deep-water port on the south coast.”
However, Michell was immediately sceptical about the practicalities of running a freight railway from Bombala to Eden, which has an altitude difference of around 800 m and goes through very steep and rough terrain.
It would, he originally suspected, require around 20 km of tunnelling. This would consign the project to “financial impossibility”, he said.
“But as I looked into it, I was surprised to learn that there is a fairly favourable route down the mountain, which I based on work that was done over 100 years ago by Charles Scrivener, the surveyor who later had a large hand in the laying out of Canberra.”
Why can’t technology show us the obvious rail route? The answer, Michell said, is because it’s not obvious. Software is no substitute for detailed engineering knowledge and human analysis.
“You need to take into account things like national parks, private property, traditional ownership and cultural sites,” he said.
“And there are some culturally sensitive sites along the way. After meetings with Traditional Owners, we modified the route to avoid impacting on these sites, as this was not only a route identified by Scrivener, it was also an ancient pilgrimage track from the coast to Mount Kosciusko.”
Laying a railway
If this piece of infrastructure became a reality — a feasibility verdict awaits — what challenges would make up its construction?
From Canberra to Cooma and onwards to Bombala, the proposal is to mainly use the existing track, most of which is suitable to some extent. It would require resleepering, reballasting, and replacement of wooden structures with concrete, plus a handful of short deviations.
The main challenges begin once the going gets steep, Michell said.
“The terrain drops away very quickly,” he said.
“So the challenge is to follow the natural lay of the land and to find an arrangement of curves and switchbacks to keep the gradient to less than two per cent.
“There’s a lot of engineering required along the way, including bridges and viaducts, some up to a kilometre in length and up to 100 m high. Yet we managed to identify a route with very little tunnelling, as that is by far the biggest expense on a per kilometre basis. We kept the amount of tunnelling required to about one-and-a-half kilometres across three tunnels.”
Making economic sense
At an estimated cost of $2.9 billion — including provision for an expansion of the existing port of Eden — the Canberra to Eden railway is potentially more affordable than the expansion of current deep-water ports in cities that are already filled to bursting point. But is it economically viable?
Richard Hopkins, a civil engineer and a spokesperson for CMPA on the Canberra to Eden railway, says the economic and social benefits more than add up.
“The Federal Government has begun to fund inland freight rail from Melbourne to Brisbane, which involves upgrades of existing lines and some new construction and will cost around $11 billion,” he said.
“The proponents of that railway are also looking for east-west connectors to alternatives to Port Botany that provide for inland freight to go to the ocean.”
A Canberra to Eden railway would provide such a service, reducing dependence on the current choke points and providing a new route to a new deep-water port from the inland.
Railway specifications for Canberra to Eden
Gauge: 1435 mm
Tracks: single
Rail type: 60 kg /m standard carbon steel, head hardened, continuously welded
Sleepers: concrete, 600 mm centres (1660 per km)
Maximum freight train length: 1800 m
Maximum passenger train length: 150 m (length of Cooma platform)
Axle loading: max 25 t, typical 22 t
Design speed for freight trains: 115 km/hr (reducing to 40 km/hr on steep upgrades)
Design speed for tilting passenger trains: 160 km/hr
This article first appeared as “Capital to coast” in the October 2020 issue of create magazine.
Have you thought about going direct to the coast at Jervis Bay as surveyed by Scrivener?
Depicted on this map: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-233895610/view
There does not appear to be enough production generated in the Monaro/Canberra area to support large port infrastructure investment. An easier option would be to extend the nearby current railway at Bomaderry (Nowra) to Jervis Bay. This would better serve the Port Kembla-Sydney-Newcastle industrial economy. There is a rail connection to southern NSW via the Unanderra – Moss Vale railway.
Why can’t you put a switch back down mountions same at ligthow
The NSW freight rail network is currently quite fragile, as it relies on cargo travelling from Port Kembla to Sydney via the Illawarra Railway, then onto Western NSW via the Blue Mountains Railway.
A Canberra to Eden railway line, combined with an intermodal freight terminal at either Queanbeyan or Fyshwick would provide an alternative Sea Port for the ACT, Eden Monaro, Western NSW and the Riverina which have a combined population of 1.2 million – more than double that of Tasmania.
, An easement for a railway from ACT to Commonwealth territory on South side of Jarvis Bay was planned on formation of ACT. This would allow politicians to reach the sea without passing through NSW. I have seen maps of the route
I have been told that a Canberra to a seaport rail link was an original requirement for the siting of our National Capital but that requirement was ignored.
We need a rail connection south from Bomaderry to Jervis Bay area. This would need work done on the line from Kiama to Bomaderry where the tunnels need work done on them. New bridge across the Shoalhaven River and on to areas in the Jervis Bay area. Some restoration work on the north bank of the river where some infrastructure was removed in recent years. If a port can be built at the bay build the line to it.
Also do a connection near Unaderra if possible to send trains coming from the west straight down south.
At first glance, Scrivener’s route to Jervis Bay looks tempting with the worst patch being the 10km haul from Sassafrass to the peak of the ridge between the Endrick and Clyde Rivers where the mean gradient seems to be close to 2%. What would also tempt me is that a 15-20km connection to Nowra (pity about a thumping big bridge over the Shoalhaven) would provide a redundancy to allow for train derailments, shipping arrival-departure changes, goodness-knows-what emergencies and economic changes. Would we need a little dredging of Jervis Bay?
I applaud new and creative ways for the designing of public transport trains from Canberra to the Port of Eden.
My understanding , the current track is not fit for purpose for a modern trains. Curvature, central to new technological trains, is one of many impediments.
Ports filled with freight containers and lining the South eastern ocean skyline is not appropriate for the beautiful historic town and port of Eden.
The plans to develop and expand current ports for more freight throughout Australia is sound intelligent policy.
Throughout global ports whether the Port of Calais or Hong Kong… the international Freight Ports appear to the visitor eye, homogenous… all packed with the same containers lined out into the vast skyline and no longer the unique smells emitting from each individual port representing the culture of this particular country. What a shame!
Bring on Public transport in regards to Trains regionally, but not the Freight Trains for the above reasons.
Eden is expanding well under the visits of ocean liners. Eden could further thrive with a modern train bringing tourists and residents through our magnificent landscape to the ocean.