Railway Digest Magazine June 2024 Back Issue

The 2024 RTAA Rail Industry Field Days
On Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 May, the biennial RTAA Rail Industry Field Days were once again held at the spacious Chullora Rail Yards in Sydney. Editor, Bruce Belbin’s enjoyment of the well-organised 2022 event had been somewhat dampened by the appalling weather, but although rain showers had been forecast for this year’s event, they proved to be few and far between, leaving plenty of time to have a good look around the various stands and exhibits.

NSW Station Stories – Valley Heights
For the latest installment of his Station Stories series, Chris Walters goes ‘super-size’ to cover not just Valley Heights Station, but the adjacent railway roundhouse and museum. Rail traffic through Valley Heights is reasonably frequent, if not amazingly varied. Being east (on the Up side) of Springwood, the first Blue Mountains destination at which certain services terminate, means that all Blue Mountains V Set services at least pass through the location, if not always actually stopping.

Forty years of high speed rail proposals
June 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the first public proposal for a Very Fast Train to link Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. The initial concept promoted by the CSIRO was taken up by the private sector but by 1991 had fallen over for lack of government support. The 1990s saw the revival of the Sydney-Canberra section with a pragmatic Speedrail proposal and although this gained initial government interest, a funding shortfall was denied by the federal and NSW Governments. More studies followed and Australia now has a High Speed Rail Authority. Dr Rob Cortis-Jones and Dr Philip Laird look briefly back on the history of these projects and note that Australia to date must surely hold the world record for high-speed rail studies with no construction.