Australia's Dalrymple port: no quick fix to queues

* Heavy congestion at Dalrymple could continue to mid-2010

* Queues still long despite more rail capacity

* Waiting time now around a month

PERTH, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Long shipping queues could persist at Australia's Dalrymple Bay port until mid-2010 as the rail network struggles to keep pace with the world's third-largest coal export terminal, a port official said on Wednesday.

Queues have eased from last week's record high of 76, but they still stretched to 71 ships on Wednesday, with the last in line facing an average wait of about 28 days.

Trains hauling coal to Dalrymple Bay, in northeast Queensland state, cannot keep up with the rising demand for coking coal, despite the addition of 20 trains to the rail system this week, said Greg Smith, head of operations at the port's coal terminal.

"There are not enough trains in supply chain to send coal to the terminal and we may face this imbalance for quite some time until the fleet is boosted next year," Smith said.

The two firms that haul coal to the port, Pacific National and state-owned Queensland Rail, are spending heavily to upgrade the rail yard and add more trains that will only be available next year.

An extra 20 trains have been diverted to Dalrymple for 3-4 weeks from a smaller, adjacent coal port, Hay Point, while the latter port undergoes planned maintenance. [ID:nSYD376616]