Austrailia Railfaning

Hey guys, Not sure if there are any Aussie railfans on here, but on the off chance...

Work is sending me to Australia next month for a few weeks. Any place that I need to go to? I'm planning on being in Sydney and the surrounding area, as well as a few days near Melbourne.

Anyone know of the condition of the Train between Sydney and Melbourne? I know there is one operated by CountryLink, and it looks decent. How does it compare in amenities to other rail service ie ICE, Amtrak etc.

Any information would be helpful.

keeper1616 wrote:Hey guys, Not sure if there are any Aussie railfans on here, but on the off chance...

Work is sending me to Australia next month for a few weeks. Any place that I need to go to? I'm planning on being in Sydney and the surrounding area, as well as a few days near Melbourne.

Anyone know of the condition of the Train between Sydney and Melbourne? I know there is one operated by CountryLink, and it looks decent. How does it compare in amenities to other rail service ie ICE, Amtrak etc.

Any information would be helpful.

22 years ago I had an Austrailpass for the whole country. I found the trains like US trains - at least the sleepers. In NSW they had a train based on the British Rail HST. They call it the XPT there.

Local trains are more like suburban trains anywhere, but the NSW Tangara double deck commuter trains are interesting. Suburban lines are electrified. Melbourne has an extensive suburban network and also a country network. Most of the Victoria state lines are to the Irish broad gauge, whereas NSW is standard gauge. If you get up to Queensland you will see Cape gauge trains, very modern.

Hi Cyrus ,
I have been to Aussie 3 or 4 times . the train from sydney to Melbourne is the xpt , i guess its similiar in comfort to an amfleet , but with less legroom . as far as scenery goes , i didnt find this route that interesting .
I would recomend trips up the blue mountains to the zigzag railway , and taking a train to newcastle . in melbourne , there is the puffing billy line , which is interesting . I think there is a xpt on a night schedule , and that would be my choice , though i think there was talk of bring baclk one of the sleeper trains , based on old budd type sleepers .

David Benton wrote:Hi Cyrus ,
I have been to Aussie 3 or 4 times . the train from sydney to Melbourne is the xpt , i guess its similiar in comfort to an amfleet , but with less legroom . as far as scenery goes , i didnt find this route that interesting .
I would recomend trips up the blue mountains to the zigzag railway , and taking a train to newcastle . in melbourne , there is the puffing billy line , which is interesting . I think there is a xpt on a night schedule , and that would be my choice , though i think there was talk of bring baclk one of the sleeper trains , based on old budd type sleepers .

I found the sleepers very nice, especially those with a shower, but I suppose "progress" has disposed of those. I would not like to go overnight on one.
I went from Sydney to Melbourne and back, and also to Brisbane on sleepers. I came back from Brisbane via the Gold Coast, a coach to Grafton and then the XPT from Grafton to Sydney.

And of course the Indian-Pacific, starting at Perth.

I would not recommend the XPT for travel between Sydney and Melbourne.

There is only one sleeping car on the night train and there are no single "roomette" type cabins. Travelling alone you either have to pay two rail fares and sleeper charges or risk sharing with a same-sex stranger.

The food is plastic and there are no cafe, dining or lounge seats - everything has to be taken back to your seat.

The train is mainly patronised by people on various types of state welfare travelling either for free or at reduced "concession" fares and rowdy or antisocial behaviour is not uncommon.

The trains are based in Sydney and have only brief turnarounds in Melbourne (1-2 hours) This means that, if they run late out of Sydney, (which is not unusual) they are often terminated at Albury (200 miles from Melbourne) and passengers bussed the rest of the way.

Very few full-fare paying passengers use these trains for the whole distance.

A useful website for railfans planning to visit Australia is www.railpage.org.au

Many of the postings are utter junk but you can pick up a lot of useful info there.

Hi Peter ,
was there talk of bringing back one of the sleeper trains , or have i got my wires crossed there ?

David

A year or so ago Great Southern Railway (operator of the Indian Pacific, Ghan and Overland) made some noises about reviving the name "Southern Aurora"

Rumor was that a single train set would make two overnight return trips from Sydney to Melbourne and one to Brisbane each week.

Consist would have been late '60s-early '70s Indian Pacific stock as the '62 Aurora cars have either been scrapped or dispersed to several owners.

Nothing has happened and GSR are silent on the matter. Possibly their research indicated that the sort of passenger that patronises "cruise train"
services wants more than just a 12-15 hour overnight journey.

Even further back there was a rumor that the Indian Pacific was to be diverted to run via Melbourne rather than Broken Hill and this even found it's way into Cook's International Timetable but, again, nothing happened.

Thanks peter , that would have been about the time i was in Australia , and picked up the magazine i read that in .

Back ot our American friend , for a taste of the Outback and the Indian pacific , would the Indian pacific to Broken hill or Adelaide , then fly to Melbourne be a good weekend trip ???

One could do a trip on the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Broken Hill leaving on Saturday afternoon and getting to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon then flying to Melbourne, although:

- The train leaves Sydney Terminal at 2:55pm. You'll get to see the scenery of Greater Western Sydney (you call that scenery!? ) and the Blue Mountains, but anywhere from there onwards until about Broken Hill is in total darkness at this time of year.
- You will only have a short time in Adelaide before needing to fly out.

And PClark, you seem very negative towards CountryLink . I travel on the XPT semi-regularily, it is not that bad, but I rarely to never catch it for the entire length of the journey.

my expeirence of the xpt was that it was adequate , certainly not a patch on queenslands trains .
thanks for the info on the indian pacific , what about doing it in the opposite direction ?.

David Benton wrote:thanks for the info on the indian pacific , what about doing it in the opposite direction ?.

It arrives into Sydney Terminal at 10:15am on Saturday (and Wednesday) - bit hard to do that from Melbourne without starting on Friday to fly to Adel , you'd still be in the darkness for much of the trip

If you want to see the scenery between Sydney and Broken Hill the only real way to do it is the once weekly CountryLink Broken Hill Xplorer service which is a 2-car diesel railcar, leaves Sydney in the morning and gets there in the evening. Would be a good trip I would imagine, never traveled for 12hrs on just a little DMU before!

Could do a nice trip if you took the Xplorer to Broken Hill on Monday, spent Tuesday around the town and got the Indian Pacific back to Sydney in the evening, albeit you would not get to go to Adelaide. Alternatively, take the Xplorer to Broken Hill, spend 2 nights there and take the Indian Pacific to Adelaide or Perth.

hmmm, for the same amount of money , he could probably fly to Christchurch , NZ , take the tranzalpine across the alps and back , and fly back to Aussie .

David Benton wrote:hmmm, for the same amount of money , he could probably fly to Christchurch , NZ , take the tranzalpine across the alps and back , and fly back to Aussie .

You're just biased because you're a Kiwi!