A weekend washout along the rail track north of Port Augusta has halted freight services from Adelaide to Perth and Darwin.
Rail owner Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) told the ABC the major weather event with significant rainfall over the past week had caused washouts along part of the track between Coondambo — near Lake Gardiner — and Lyons, 473 kilometres north-west of Port Augusta.
With rail maintenance crews still assessing the damage to the tracks, it is not known how long the track with be out of service.
The rail corridor is used for passenger and services from Adelaide to Darwin, as well as freight services from Adelaide to Perth.
Julie Brett, who owns the Kingoonya Hotel, which is next to the rail line, said there were multiple washouts along the track, with at least three freight trains stranded along the line.
Assessors were yet to gain access to the area and were expected to arrive in Kingoonya today, she said.
"They're coming through today and working their way up this way so we expect to see them late this afternoon," Mrs Brett said.
"The only ones that are stuck are towards Cook, Port Augusta and I think there's one at Tarcoola."
Mrs Brett said 147.5 millilitres of rain had fallen over the past week.
"We hardly ever see as much rain as what's laying around out the front," she said.
"Our swamp where we get our water from is inundated so that will flush it out, which is good.
"It's not very often we see it like this."
Line to be closed for days
A spokeswoman for One Rail, owners of the Tarcoola to Darwin rail line, said the company anticipated the track would reopen on Wednesday.
"One Rail can confirm that the ARTC network between Port Augusta and Tarcoola is currently closed with the current weather event causing flooding along sections of the line," she said.
"This has temporarily affected the services departing Adelaide to Darwin.
"One Rail is working closely with our customers and ARTC on the resumption of services once the line is reopened."
There have been outages on these lines before, so there recovery contingencies in place, but it's still too early to say exactly how many days different pieces of infrastructure will be out.
The freight company Customised Freight Solutions expects services will not resume until Thursday.
The company says in the interim, carriers will be running additional express road services, however, the delivery time frame is now five to seven days.
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said he did not expect supply chain issues connected with the rail closure.
"We have had outages on these lines before and so we've got good recovery contingencies in place, but it's still too early to say exactly how many days different pieces of infrastructure are going to be out for," he said.
Most rail freight carried across the Nullarbor and to the Northern Territory is general goods in shipping containers.
The Indian Pacific passenger train is not running because of COVID-19 border restrictions imposed by Western Australia.
Freight company calls for federal funding to upgrade tracks
One of Australia's largest freight companies said the Trans-Australian Railway was the "umbilical cord" connecting Australia's eastern and western seaboards and called for the Federal Government to fund upgrades to the vital infrastructure.
Pacific National chief operating officer Pat O'Donnell said relying on road and sea freight would not satisfy current demand.
"As the country's largest private rail freight company, Pacific National alone undertakes approximately 50 return services each week between Adelaide and Perth," he said.
"That's equivalent to 90-kilometres of freight train length each week. Currently, these critical rail freight services are suspended due to the track closure."
"It's now time for the Australian Government to commit funds to upgrade this vital piece of national infrastructure.
He said the Omicron outbreak had highlighted the importance of rail to Australia's national supply chain.
"A typical 1,800-metre-long double-stacked interstate freight train travelling between Adelaide and Perth, [in a] 2,700-kilometre journey which takes between 42 to 46 hours, can haul up to 330 containers," he said.
"Such a service is equivalent to 140 interstate B-double truck trips, or 280 return truck trips.
"For added context, a single container can hold up to 50,000 cans of food, 25,000 rolls of toilet paper, 1,500 cases of beer, 900 boxes of bananas, or 100 fridges."
