Taking  A  Heavy  Haul  Approach  to  Rehabilita7on,  Opera7on  and  

Maintenance  of  East  African  Railways,  November  2012  

•  CASE  STUDY:  Taking  a  Heavy  Haul  Approach  to  Rehabilita7on,  Opera7on  and  Maintenance  of  East  African  Rail  Infrastructure  

•  Insights  into  the  Dutwa  Nickel  Project  •  Lessons  learnt  from  the  Hunter  Valley  Heavy  Haul  Coal  Chain  

Context  

HUNTER  VALLEY  HEAVY  HAUL  NETWORK  NSW,  AUSTRALIA  

DUTWA  NICKEL  PROJECT  TANZANIA  

The  Hunter  Valley  Network  

A  Complex  Logis7cs  Chain  

•  34 Coal Mines

•  14 Producers

•  24 Load Points

•  80 Different Brands of Coal

•  4 Above Rail Operators

•  2 Terminal Operators / 3 Terminals

•  Multiple Components per Cargo

•  140 tonne pa Export Target

•  16 independent organisations required to move each tonne of coal

•  No control over demand – only two weeks visibility and highly variable volumes

•  Avg 5 days clean coal on stock at the mines

“The Hunter Valley is a complex integrated

logistics chain”

Hunter  Valley  Operators  

‘Open  Access’  8  Minute  Headways  10,000  tonne  Trains  30  tonne  axle  loads  

Complex  Train  Management  

•  5 train transit managers

•  59 network controllers

•  5 coal logistics co-ordinators

•  4 train programmers

•  12 control boards

Efficient  Maintenance  

7  

Maitland  PC  (39  ARTC  Staff)  

Muswellbrook  PC  (24  ARTC  Staff)  

Scone  Sub  PC  

(7  ARTC  Staff)  

Carrington  Sub  PC  

(17  ARTC  Staff)  

Major  Projects  

$3  bn  of  Capacity  Projects  in  the  Planning  

East  African  Railways  

East  African  Railways  

East  African  Railways  

East  African  Railways  

East  African  Railways  

East  African  Railways  

Posi7ves  

Posi7ves  

Posi7ves  

Posi7ves  

East  African  Railways  

‘On  the  surface  these  Networks  look  very  different….  

………..They  do  however  share  a  common  history’  

Hunter  Valley  History  

Narrow  Gauge  in  Australia  

Central  Queensland  Coal  Network:  180  million  tonna  pa  

Brookfield  Rail,  Western  Australia:  50  million  tonne  pa  

Future  Growth  in  East  Africa    provides  Opportunity  

Corridor  Upgrade  Strategy:  

Target  reduc7ons  in  Transit  Time  

Challenging  the  standards  in  rela7on  to  axle  loads  

Commercially  driven,  reliable  freight  opera7ons  

Get  the  most  out  of  the  infrastructure  

Standard  Gauge  in  East  Africa?  

If  East  Africa  is  to  one  day  have  a  World  Class  Standard  Gauge  railway……..  

..  it  should  be  as  part  of  a  Staged  Plan  to  revitalise  rail  on  the  Exis7ng  Corridors’……….  

Key  Message  

‘Pay  for  future  upgrades…..  

with  the  revenue  created  ……  

from  running  exis7ng  railways….  

 more  efficiently’    

•  Dutwa  is  a  significant  nickel  project  with  around  100  million  tonnes  at  ~  1%  equivalent.  The  project  was  discovered  in  mid-­‐2008.    

•  The  deposits  are  readily  accessible  and  situated  on  hilltops.  The  mining  method  with  be  open  pit,  with  minimal  pre-­‐stripping  required  and  a  very  low  ore  to  waste  ra7o  

Dutwa  Nickel  Project  

•  To  develop  this  Nickel  Mine  we  must  first  solve  the  Transport  issues.  

•  The  mining  is  the  easy  part  

Dutwa  Loca7on  –  Northern  Tanzania  

Transport  Bulk  Volumes  

Limestone:  

0.75  million  tonne  pa  

Sulphur  +  other  reagents:  

0.45  million  tonne  pa  

TOTAL  VOLUME:  

1.3  million  tonne  pa  

What  is  a  Corridor  Approach  

‘The  Philosophy  of  geing  the  Maximum  Opera7onal  benefit  out  of  your  infrastructure  budget……  

………not  the  maximum  possible  infrastructure’    

Why  a  Corridor  Approach?  

‘Because  that  is  what  majers  to  your  Customer.  

His  prime  concern  is  how  many  tonnes  he  can  haul  and  how  long  it  will  take’    

Take  a  Heavy  Haul  Approach  

‘The  key  to  reducing  maintenance  costs  and  improving  opera7ons  on  low  tonnages  lines  is  to  study  Heavy  Haul  networks.  

‘There  is  no  room  for  error  when  running  in  excess  of  200  million  Gross  tonnes  on  a  single  track  …….  

………so  by  necessity,  the  Hunter  Valley  had  to  develop  efficient  ways  of  maintaining  infrastructure’  

Rail  –  The  Highest  Priority  

Remove impacts from joints, poor welds, and surface defects

Sleepers  –  Steel  is  Fine  

Ensure Ballast under the sleepers, especially at fixed points

Ballast  –  Regular  Resurfacing  

Ensure ballast is free draining;

Forma7on  –  Well  Drained  

Use Slot drains or GPR in areas of concern

Asset  Protec7on  –  Monitoring  

Asset  protec7on  systems  include:  

•   Wheel  impact  load  detectors  •   Hot  bearing  detectors  •   Dragging  equipment  detectors  •   In  line  weighbridges  •   Geometry  recording  instrumented  to  Loco  

Network  Control  &  Signalling  

Train  Management  is  cri7cal  in  Heavy  Haul  to  meet  Cycle  Times.  

Same  is  true  on  Low  tonnage  lines  so  Operators  make  profit.      Suggest:  Independent  Network  control,  with  KPI’s  and  protocol’s  in  place  for  management  of  priority  services.  

Implement  a  satellite  based  Track  Warrant  System  (ideal  for  single  lines)    

Just  some  sugges7ons:    

•   Con7nuous  welding  of  rails  to  improve  train  speed  

•   Extension  of  crossing  loops  for  long  freight  trains  

•   Regular  and  higher  produc7on  track  resurfacing  

•   Ballast  distribu7on  system  

•   A  future  rail  grinding  program  

•   A  satellite  based  Train  Order  Working  system  

•   A  program  to  improve  the  skills  of  the  exis7ng  workforce      

Final  note