The story
Early history
Queensland Railways was the first operator in the world to adopt a narrow gauge (in this case 1,067 mm or 3 ft 6 in) for a main line, and this remains the system-wide gauge in Queensland.
The colony of Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859, and the new government was keen to facilitate development and immigration. Improved transport to the fertile Darling Downs region situated west of Toowoomba was seen as a priority. As adequate river transport was already established between the capital Brisbane and the then separate settlement of Ipswich, the railway commenced from the latter locality and the initial section, built over the relatively flat, easy country opened to Bigge's Camp, at the eastern base of the Little Liverpool Range, on 31 July 1865. Called the Main Line, the only significant engineering work on that section was the bridge over the Bremer River to North Ipswich.
Tunneling excavation through the Little Liverpool Range delayed the opening of the next section to Gatton by 10 months, but the line was opened to Toowoomba in 1867, the ascent of the Main Range being the reason for the adoption of narrow gauge.
Built by the Queensland Government to the unusual (for the time) gauge of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in), the line largely followed the alignment surveyed by a private company, the Moreton Bay Tramway Company, which had proposed to build a 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge horse-drawn tramway but had been unable to raise funds to do so beyond an initial start on earthworks.
The adoption of a narrow gauge was controversial at the time and was largely predicated by the government's desire for the fastest possible construction timeframe at the least cost. This resulted in the adoption of sharper curves and a lower axle load than was considered possible using the standard gauge, and an assessment at the time put the cost of a narrow gauge line from Ipswich to Toowoomba at 25% of the cost of a standard gauge line. Given that the colony only had a population of ~30,000 at the time, more expensive options would not have been financially viable.
The network evolved as a series of isolated networks. It wasn't until the completion of the North Coast line in December 1924 that all were joined. The exception was the Normanton to Croydon line which always remained isolated. At its peak in 1932, the network totaled 10,500 kilometres (6,524 mi).
Changing transport patterns resulted in the closure of many development branch lines from 1948 onwards, but at the same time the main lines were upgraded to provide contemporary services, and from the 1970s an extensive network of new lines was developed, particularly to service export coal mines.
Electrification
Commencing in November 1979, the Brisbane suburban network was electrified.
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In 1978, discussions were commenced on the possible electrification of the Blackwater and Goonyella coal networks. This was due to an expected increase in coal traffic across the networks, an ageing diesel-electric locomotive fleet and the increase in diesel fuel costs. By early 1983, a decision had been made to electrify the networks and by early 1984, contracts were already starting to be let for the new locomotives and other works for the project. The decision was made to electrify with the 25 kV AC railway electrification system as used on the Brisbane suburban network. This would allow future connection of the Brisbane network with the coal networks via the North Coast line.
The project was to be carried out in four stages:
Stage 1: Electrification of the main line from Gladstone to Rockhampton, including parts of Rockhampton marshalling yard, then west to Blackwater and the coal mines in the area. This was a total of 720 kilometres (447 mi) of the track.
Stage 2: Electrification of the coal lines south of Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point, then west through the Goonyella system, southwest to Blair Athol and south to Gregory – linking the Goonyella system to the Blackwater system. This was a total of 773 kilometres (480 mi) of the track.
Stage 3: Electrification of the main western line from Burngrove to Emerald. This would allow electric freight from Rockhampton to Emerald.
Stage 4: Electrification of the line from Newlands coal mine to Collinsville and northeast to Abbott Point. This stage never went ahead. In 1986, it was decided to electrify the North Coast line between Brisbane and Gladstone instead and this became known as Stage 4.
Interstate freight expansion
In September 1999, Queensland Rail was rebranded as QR. In March 2002, Queensland Rail purchased Northern Rivers Railroad and rebranded it Interail, fulfilling a long-held ambition of expanding beyond its state borders.
In March 2003, Queensland Rail entered the Hunter Valley coal market when Interail commenced a contract from Duralie Colliery to Stratford Mine. Another coal contract was won in late 2003 for the haulage of coal from Newstan Colliery, Fassifern to Vales Point Power Station. In 2004, Interail began running Brisbane to Melbourne and Sydney to Melbourne intermodal services. In June 2005, Queensland Rail acquired the CRT Group.
In June 2006, the Western Australian business of the Australian Railroad Group was purchased.
Privatisation and the current era
QR was responsible for all Queensland freight services, and from 2002 operated interstate services under the Australian Railroad Group, Interail and QR National brands. These were all spun out into a separate entity in July 2010, and later privatised as Aurizon.
In June 2009, the Queensland Government announced the privatisation of Queensland Rail's freight business. This resulted in Queensland Rail's freight assets being transferred to QR National (now Aurizon) from 1 July 2010.
In April 2013, the Queensland Parliament passed the Queensland Rail Transit Authority Bill 2013 that restructured Queensland Rail. The explanatory notes published for the bill outlined that the existing Queensland Rail Limited entity would remain although no longer be a government-owned corporation and that entity would become a subsidiary of a new Queensland Rail Transit Authority (QRTA), in effect creating a Queensland Rail group. Under the revised arrangements Queensland Rail Limited retained assets and liabilities and staff were transferred to the QRTA. As a result of transferring the staff to the QRTA, the government moved those employees from the federal industrial relations system to the state-based industrial relations system, giving the state more control over industrial arrangements. In November 2013, five labour unions commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Australia alleging that the QRTA was subject to the federal industrial jurisdiction rather than the state system. In April 2015, the court ruled the QRTA was subject to the Fair Work Act 2009 and the federal industrial relations jurisdiction.
From Wikipedia’s article on Queensland Rail, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4