The report, compiled by consultancy firm GHD for the federal transport department, concludes that even the cheapest upgrade − improving the tortuous existing rail path through the Adelaide Hills − is not cost effective.

GHD researchers found even the most productive of the five options studied would provide benefits of $190m over 30 years, compared with construction costs for the five of between $700m and $3.2bn each.

“While there are benefits flowing to rail track managers, train operators and the communities that surround the rail line, the size of these benefits is modest and the size of the capital outlay required to generate such benefits is large, particularly in the new alignment options,” the report says.

Share your opinion: View and discuss the Adelaide Hills rail bypass proposals.

The current alignment has a capacity of 10.7 million tonnes of freight a year, which is more than double the 4.8 million tonnes a year currently carried on the rail line.

However, steep grades and tight curves force trains to travel more slowly and to use 50 percent more locomotive power per tonne than on other interstate rail freight corridors, the report says.

They also restrict trains to a maximum of 3,500 tonnes gross.

The terrain of the Adelaide Hills causes greater locomotive and wagon wear and tear and higher maintenance costs than would be incurred with a straighter, flatter alignment.

Responses from the Australian Trucking Association and the Australasian Railway Association to the report were awaited at deadline today.

via Supply Chain Review

Two locomotives operated by Pacific National were hauling the carriages near Ki Ki in the state’s Upper South-East towards Adelaide when the second engine caught fire about 5.15am.

The drivers managed to unhook the lead locomotive as the second diesel electric engine was gutted by the fire.

Fifteen Country Fire Service volunteers in three appliances took about one hour to put out the fire.

The firefighters prevented the fire spreading to the thousands of litres of diesel in the fuel tanks of the engine.

The line was blocked for about five hours and the Overland from Adelaide-to-Melbourne was delayed.

AdelaideNow