The Crystal Brook–Broken Hill railway line is a 371 kilometre line running from Crystal Brook to Broken Hill on the

Australian Rail Track Corporation The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is an Australian Government-owned statutory corporation. It operates one of the largest rail networks in the nation spanning 8,500km across five states, 39 worksites and more than 50 First Nations. ...

network.Crystal Brook - Kanandah map
SA Track & SignalD15 Broken Hill to Crystal Brook
Australian Rail Track Corporation April 2014

History

In the 1875, the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Aust ...

built a narrow gauge line from

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South A ...

to Gladstone. This was extended to Cockburn in 1888 where it joined with the

Silverton Tramway The Silverton Tramway was a 58-kilometre-long railway line running from Cockburn on the South Australian state border to Broken Hill in New South Wales. Operating between 1888 and 1970, it served the mines in Broken Hill, and formed the lin ...

. In April 1963, the Federal Government decided to replace the narrow gauge line with a new standard gauge line to create an East-West rail corridor from Sydney to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. The new line opened in January 1970. Parts of the new line are on a different alignment than the old narrow gauge route. For example, the new line bypasses the town of Oodla Wirra, and followed a new alignment rather than the route of the

. In 1982, the Adelaide to Port Augusta line was converted to standard gauge. As part of this the junction with the Port Pirie to Broken Hill line was moved 24 kilometres east to Crystal Brook. The 371 kilometre line is single track throughout with 13 crossing loops.

Services

The main traffic on the line is interstate freight trains operating between Sydney,

Parkes Parkes may refer to: * Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896), Australian politician, one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for Australian federation Named for Henry Parkes * Parkes, New South Wales, a regional town * Parkes Observatory, a radi ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

with the majority operated by

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Federal, New South Wales and Victorian Governments) were combined with Freig ...

and

SCT Logistics SCT Logistics is an Australian interstate transport company operating rail and road haulage, with facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Parkes, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. History SCT Logistics was founded in 1974 as Specialised Container Tra ...

Genesee & Wyoming Australia One Rail Australia is an Australian rail freight operator company. Founded by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and later renamed Genesee & Wyoming Australia, it was renamed One Rail Australia in February 2020 aft ...

operate intrastate services.Rail Transport Memorandum of Outstanding signed with Genesee & Wyoming Australia
Carpenteria Exploration 31 October 2012 The only passenger service is

Journey Beyond Journey Beyond is the business name (together with more than a dozen other related names) of Experience Australia Group Pty Ltd, a private equity-owned company known mainly for operating Australian interstate experiential tourism trains ('' Th ...

's ''

Indian Pacific The ''Indian Pacific'' is a weekly experiential tourism passenger train service that runs in Australia's east–west rail corridor between Sydney, on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the shore of the Indian Ocean – thus, like ...

''. In the 1980s, the line was briefly served by '' The Alice'' and Australian National's Adelaide to Broken Hill service.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crystal Brook-Broken Hill railway line Railway lines in South Australia Regional railway lines in New South Wales Standard gauge railways in Australia Broken Hill, New South Wales