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The launch was marked by the departure of the first fully laden coal train out of Xstrata’s new Rolleston mine.
The railway, the longest spur line to be built in Queensland since 1983, was finished two months ahead of schedule and coincided with the ramp-up of operations at Rolleston.
The first train carried about 7000 tonnes of coal to Gladstone. QR chief Bob Scheuber said that once the mine was fully operational there would be an average of 22 services per week making the 422km journey from the mine to Gladstone and back.
Rolleston Coal plans to haul up to eight million tonnes of domestic and export coal to Gladstone by 2008.
Under the deal struck with QR for the Bauhinia Project, the company will pay an access fee for using the QR owned and operated line.
Gladstone Port is also up for a major capacity upgrade after the Queensland Government this month fast-tracked development of a third coal-loading terminal.
Construction of the Wiggins Island coal terminal and associated rail infrastructure will cost $A1.8 billion and will be completed by 2010. It would have the capacity to handle 140 million tonnes of export coal annually.
Nominal capacity of the Port of Gladstone is currently 45mtpa of coal.
As well as West Rolleston, the new terminal will service potential new steaming coal mines to the south of Gladstone such as Wandoan and Monto.
