The Sydney–Brisbane railway corridor consists of the long standard-gauge main line between the Australian state capitals of Brisbane (Queensland) and Sydney (New South Wales), and the lines immediately connected to it.
Description The main line consists of: the Main North line from Sydney Central station to Telarah station, in Maitland, and the North Coast line from Telarah to Roma Street station, Brisbane.
Freight trains operate along the entire corridor, as does a daily (each way) XPT passenger service, in addition to a service to Casino.
History Originally the corridor consisted of standard gauge track in New South Wales and narrow gauge track in Queensland, which met at a break-of-gauge station at Wallangarra. In 1930 the NSW North Coast line was extended from Casino to Brisbane making through services possible, using a rail ferry for the river crossing in Grafton until the Grafton Bridge opened in 1932. p1 The superseded Main Northern railway line, which went to Wallangarra, now terminates near Armidale.
Gallery A daily XPT service between Sydney and Brisbane travels the full length of the corridorThe northbound Brisbane Limited at Yeerongpilly in 1987 was locomotive-hauled A southbound goods train in 1987 near Kyogle, where until 1930 the track terminated. Previously, both passengers and freight on the (further inland) Main North line had to change between standard gauge (NSW) and narrow gauge (QLD) Staff operation, in which tokens authorizing access to track sections are physically exchanged, has now been superseded by Centralised traffic control in the corridor
See also Northern Sydney Freight Corridor – a package of capacity improvements between Sydney and Newcastle
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