East–west rail corridor (Australia)

Australia's east–west rail corridor is a standard gauge railway that runs for 4,352 kilometres (2,704 mi) across Australia from Sydney, New South Wales to Perth, Western Australia.[1][2] The Indian Pacific passenger train operates along the entire route[3] [note 1] and The Ghan along part of it.[4] A number of local passenger services operate at either end. The corridor is heavily trafficked by freight trains.

East–west rail corridor, Australia

Sydney Sydney–Brisbane railway Sydney–Melbourne railway Main Suburban line Parramatta Main Western line Orange Broken Hill line Broken Hill NSW/SA border Broken Hill-Crystal Brook line to Adelaide & the Melbourne–Adelaide railway Crystal Brook Adelaide-Port Augusta railway Port Augusta Trans-Australian Railway Tarcoola Adelaide–Darwin railway Trans-Australian Railway SA/WA border Trans-Australian Railway Kalgoorlie Eastern Goldfields Railway Northam Eastern Railway Perth

The 4,352 kilometres (2,704 mi) east-west rail corridor, which includes the 1,691 kilometres (1,051 mi) historically significant Trans-Australian Railway shown by a solid line (click to enlarge)

Leaving Kewdale Freight Terminal, Western Australia, is a typical freight train of the East–west rail corridor, with three locomotives, a crew car, and a train of up to 1.8  km of container cars (many of them double-stacked)

The route traverses several railway lines that three state government railway authorities[note 2] built from the 1880s onwards within their states. The federal government built the 1,681 kilometres (1,045 mi) Trans-Australian Railway in 1917 to connect Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and Port Augusta, South Australia. However, it was not until 1970 that gauge conversion enabled through trains to operate on standard gauge tracks along the entire corridor.[5][6]

As of 2008, the rail corridor carried 81 per cent of land freight between the eastern states and Perth, up from 60 per cent in 1996–97;[7] and in November 2007, 3.46 billion gross tonne-kilometres of freight was carried, a record at the time.[8] Major freight operators on the corridor include Pacific National, Aurizon, and SCT Logistics.