By Chris James
Most of us would remember with horror, not so long ago, railway tracks on the suburban rail network buckling during the summer heat and trains being cancelled left, right and centre.
To prevent this, Metro has re-tensed sections of rail and replaced metal spikes that hold rail tracks in place. But they aren’t just stopping there.
Another distinguishing feature of Melbourne’s rail infrastructure has been the preponderance of 19th century era wooden sleepers.
The good news is that these are going to be replaced by concrete sleepers, as part of a Metro and Victorian Government rail works blitz.
According to Transport Minister Martin Pakula, if laid end-to-end, the 28,500 new concrete sleepers would stretch 57 kilometres, longer than the distance from the CBD to Mt Martha. Other measures can also be found within the Transport Minister’s press release.
Meanwhile, stand by for the results of our survey on public transport reliability and its impacts on business.
[...] part of VECCI’s pre-budget submission to the State Government, VECCI has called for ongoing maintenance to be undertaken on public transport networks to avoid delays, including upgrading wooden sleepers [...]