At Port Pirie, new standard-gauge sidings and other facilities would be needed to handle the increased freight and passenger traffic enabled by the upgraded line.

Passengers, parcels and mail would transfer across a new island platform paralleling Wandearah Road; the station entrance would front Mary Elie Street.

[2]: 1‑639 The configuration of tracks and platform was not easily devised – the South Australian Railways insisted that all freight and passenger traffic from the rail corridor would enter the Port Pirie yard and station.

However, the entire train needed to be pushed back for 3.6 kilometres (2.2 miles)[9] to return to the mainline and continue on its way – a time-wasting procedure.

A 1971 report stated: "It is expected that in the near future the Australian National Railways Commission will construct a by-pass line around the Port Pirie yard and station to facilitate the fast through movement of freight trains between Sydney and Perth.

The "missing link" between them was completed in 1978 by 600 metres (660 yards) of new track to form the "Coonamia triangle", which not only enabled straight-through traffic but provided a useful means of turning locomotives and trains.

[2]: 1‑659  It was still considered necessary to provide a facility for Port Pirie passengers of The Ghan, Indian Pacific, and (until June 1991, when it ceased) the Trans-Australian,[2]: 1‑659 [10] so a tiny "provisional" stop was simultaneously re-established at Coonamia (see map, station 6), allowing trains to pick up and drop off Port Pirie passengers without having to go through the reversing procedure.

Nine months later, the federal House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure recommended that the Indian Pacific and Trans-Australian, which still ran over three different rail authorities'[note 4] tracks, be booked, staffed and controlled by Australian National and be upgraded, refurbished and marketed as luxury train journeys.