East-west rail link set to re-open
Posted
Updated
Track repairs: Indian Pacific and freight services set to resume
The east-west rail link across Australia is expected to open again by tomorrow.
A section in the far west of South Australia has been closed since a freight train derailment on Monday night.
There was significant track damage, forcing a cancellation of an Indian Pacific train due to leave Perth.
Another passenger train was delayed leaving Adelaide to head west.
Brad Emery from the Australian Rail Track Corporation says the closure has affected freight and passenger services for much of the week.
"It's never a good thing when this sort of incident happens. What's important is that our teams have been working extremely well and to have brought the scheduled opening of the track forward by almost 24 hours is just a testament to how hard they've been working," he said.
"It was quite extensive [damage]. There was 300 metres of destroyed line, 2.2 kilometres of damaged line.
"There were 12 wagons on the ground that had to be removed by cranes, so there was quite an extensive amount of work."
