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Category: Floods / Rail Transport / States and Territories

Busy rail freight line reopens after Tasmanian floods

Thursday, 21 Jul 2016 05:24:15

The partial collapse of the Kimberley Bridge forced freight onto Tasmania's roads. (Supplied: Andrew Emery)

Tasmania's busiest freight rail corridor is back up and running after TasRail completed long-awaited repairs to the Kimberley Bridge.

Floodwaters damaged the bridge in early June, closing the rail link from Brighton to Burnie.

Up until now freight containers from the state's south have been transferred onto trucks to be delivered to major ports at Burnie and Devonport.

Paper mill Norske Skog's products have been doing just that.

Supply and logistics manager Arnold Willems said while the Kimberley bridge was important to Norske Skog's operations, the Norwegian company coped well with the inconvenience.

"There was some extra cost but the good cooperation we've had with TasRail and the trucking company has minimised that cost to us," Mr Willems said.

Train on Kimberley Bridge in north west Tasmania Photo: The Kimberley Bridge was one of 65 TasRail locations needing repair after flooding. (TasRail)

Brett Charlton from the Tasmanian Logistics Committee said the reopening would take dozens of trucks off the road.

"It's going to allow the trucking industry to allocate their trucks back to their normal task," he said.

The line linking the west coast and the Port of Burnie reopened late last month.

TasRail CEO Damien White would not put a dollar figure on the damage to the state's rail network.

He is confident the State Government-owned company's insurer and disaster relief funding would cover most of it.

"[We are] seeking where we can Commonwealth emergency flood-recovery money for critical infrastructure, which we would argue ours is," he said.

Mr White said TasRail had fixed flood damage at 65 locations across the network.

Landslip on Tasmanian railway line after floods Photo: The Melba Line linking the west coast and Burnie reopened last month. (TasRail)

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