Trans Australian Railway Access Track/road

from Haigh to the western end

Hi Pete I was referring from the west travelling east I'm aware of the SA restrictions.

I just want to travel as far east before having to drop down onto the Eyre Hwy.

Hema Maps have a note on their maps that the track is "officially closed" between Haig WA & Lyons SA, and no travel permits will be issued.

Bob

Peter is saying that you can travel east as far as Haig. That is it.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Relevant thread: https://www.exploroz.com/forum/136246/trans-access-track--telstras-access-track

The truth is, technically, the vast majority of the Trans Line Railway Reserve (particularly once East of Bulong) is only 400M wide.
This is the only land the ARTC can technically and legally, control access to.

Outside that Railway Reserve is unallocated Crown Land, Pastoral Leases, and Mining Leases.

You can prove this, by looking up the Railway Reserve land titles on W.A.'s Landgate Mapviewer Plus.

The Railway Reserve land titles are broken up into about 6 adjoining titles between Bulong and the W.A.-S.A. border.
The ARTC pays rates to the Shire of Kalgoorlie-Boulder on these titles, the same as any other land title owner.

But the Trans Access Road (as Landgate refer to it) is quite often, well outside the Railway Reserve.
The TAR meanders back and forth, onto the Railway Reserve - and more often than not, out onto adjoining Crown Land, or Pastoral or Mining Leases.

This means, that technically and legally, ARTC is on thin ice, trying to stop people from using the TAR.

The bottom line is, ARTC are under pressure from their lawyers to stop the public from accessing the TAR, because of liability issues - that have never been tested in any court action, that I know of.

But the greatest pressure on ARTC to stop access to the TAR, is from WAPOL, who are intent on stopping drug runners from running their illegal products into the State - and those drug runners will use the TAR to try to avoid regular WAPOL interception on the Eyre Hwy.

But the drug runners often don't realise, they still face WAPOL interception on the TAR - because the WAPOL aren't completely stupid, and they watch for suspicious users of the TAR, quite intensely. Modern surveillance is all-seeing.

Technically, if you are pulled up and told you are on a private road that you are prohibited to use, the ARTC has to prove that you are actually on their Railway Reserve property.
If you are more than 200M from the centreline of the rail line, East of Bulong, you are technically, and legally, not on Railway Reserve property.

Cheers, Ron.

But will it actually clarify it once and for all?

If they come back at all, it will be an ARTC lawyer-based response, advising you of the dreadful legal consequences of failing to obey their prohibition signs.

There is nothing clear about the Trans Access Road rulings.
ARTC simply demand that the general public keep off it - because the general public may interfere with rail operations - may try to cross the line at unauthorised crossing points, and become stuck - may become injured or even be killed on the road - or may try to stop trains for rescue purposes, leading to unnecessary work for ARTC. One can understand their concerns.

However, as with all large operations they cater for the LCD of the general public, who would be brainless enough to indulge in all of the above.

Stepdaughters partner is a train controller, and you would not believe the daily public idiocy he shows us, caught on rail line CCTV, and locomotive and railcar cameras.

The number of near-misses from sure and sudden death, from individuals trying to beat speeding trains at crossings (and not on crossings), is incredible - both on foot, and in vehicles.

The interstate freight trains can do 115kmh, and regularly travel at that speed on the Trans Line.
You give 2500 or 3000 tonnes travelling at 115kmh, the great respect they deserve.

Cheers, Ron.

Hi Rob, its probably best that we do not prod the tiger with a stick. The more the issue is challenged the more prohibitive measures they are likely to seek to introduce. Sometimes its best not to have absolute clarity but to take your chances instead.....like many have done over the last decade or so and hopefully will do in the future. In my view the issue is best left dormant and this site remain silent. Cheers