ORE RAILWAYS: A CONCEPT ALIEN TO EUROPE

Although almost unknown in Europe, ore railways, carrying primarily mineral freight, especially iron ore or coal, are important in the USA, Canada, and Australia especially. They have exceptionally high performance standards, because they use state-of-the-art technology in their field. Their productivity per employee, wagon, or locomotive is about 20 to 40 times the European average. A typical ore railway is single track, running several hundred km from mine to port, and designed for bulk transport, with annual traffic 20Mt to 100Mt. Ore railways have three major advantages over other railways. They have no rivals on the routes over which they operate. They are safe investments because of their potential for continual development. They have unique heavy haul specialisation, so that their performance is very good, except for speed, which is irrelevant. The International Heavy Haul Association (IHHA) has as members ore railways and some other larger railways also operating mining lines. Most investors are interested only in new ore freight lines, which have been under construction or planned in Russia, India, China, Indonesia, Australia, North Africa, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. This article includes a discussion of examples from Brazil, Australia, Canada, and Africa.

• Corporate Authors:

  International Railway Congress Association

  17-21 rue de Louvrain
  1000 Brussels,   Belgium 
• Authors:
  • BATISSE, F
• Publication Date: 2000-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 8-15
• Serial:
  • RAIL INTERNATIONAL
  • Volume: 31
  • Issue Number: 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coal; Developing countries; Economic efficiency; Freight transportation; International; Investments; Iron; Minerals; Mines; Organizations; Oxides; Technology
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency
• Geographic Terms: Australia; Canada; United States
• ITRD Terms: 8006: Australia; 8018: Canada; 4115: Coal; 150: Developing countries; 5911: Efficiency; 741: Goods traffic; 9034: International; 227: Investment; 7159: Iron; 5117: Mine; 4051: Mineral; 9057: Organization (association); 7372: Oxide; 3855: Technology; 8122: USA
• Subject Areas: Economics; Freight Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00794982
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jul 7 2000 12:00AM