ADELAIDE TO PERTH

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 99, 26 April 1917, Page 2

ADELAIDE TO PERTH

THE EAST TO WEST RAILWAY.

(FRO!! »UR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 18th April. It is possible that the first train will run from Adelaide to Perth about the end of next August. The last link to complete the great railway from Northern Queensland to Western Australia lay between Port Augusta, in South Australia, and Kalgoorlie, a distance of 1051 miles. Of tins, 946 miles have now been completed, leaving 105 miles of track still to be laid.

•War conditionsjiave delayed the work. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company, owinf to the war and to persistent and irritating strikes, was unable to deliver rails and fishplates within the contracted time, and now, when the rails have been rolled, the utmost difficulty is being experienced in go'tting the shipping necessary to send the right proportion to the West Australian section of the work. However, if the rails can reach their destination within reasonable time, the track will be sufficiently completed in August to allow trains to go through.

The ballasting of the track will not then be completed, but it is proposed to run trains over the new line at an average speed of 30 \ miles an hour. The Journey from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie, which will be made each way by two trains each week, will take 35 hours. The complete journey from Adelaide to Perth, under these conditions, should occupy between 50 and 60 hours. When the track is ballasted, an average speed of 40 miles will be maintained, and the journey will require correspondingly less time. Each trans-continental train will consist of two second-class sleepers, two first-class sleepers, one dining-car, one first-class day car, one bulk mail van, and one brake van. Special pains are being taken to make the new rolling : stock comfortable and attractive. A great part of the line between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie runs through blank desert. It is said that, "with water, it may become smiling pastoral country, but at present it is a wilderness which, apart from its novelty, will be an eyesore and a weariness to travellers. - .