Interstate journeys and break of gauge (was: Suburban densities and rail service)

[Deeg <galtfd@att.net>]

>>Would anybody have bothered taking a transfer train Roma St to South
>>Brisbane in 1954? The Merivale Bridge (spanning the the Brisbane River)
>>wasn't completed till 1978, hence no inner-city rail connection between the
>>north and south banks of the river. I would imagine most people would have
>>simply taken a taxi or a tram over the Victoria Bridge (road & tram bridge),
>>considering a train trip would have required travelling south to
>>Sherwood/Corinda (ie. over the river bridge at Indooroopilly) then across to
>>Yeerongpilly (via Tennyson), then back up to South Brisbane.
>>
>>Cheers
>>RODS
>>
>>P.S.  I am not old enough to say all this from "first hand" knowledge, so I
>>am open to corrections here!! :-)
>

He is of course correct, though I have to take his word on the 1978
part. In 1954 there was no service between Roma Street and South
Brisbane. One thing you could do that you can't now, of course, was
tram it - change of trams required, unfortunately, so you might decide
that two 6d fares was too much to pay for for a ride of less than a
mile and choose to walk instead..

That trip from Cairns to Perth seems nowadays to have taken a
lifetime. But in 1954 - or even later - this was the way it had always
been. People either coughed up the money to fly or resigned themselves
to many days' travel. It was a trip you might make once a year, or
once a lifetime.

Most journeys, of course, were more of the duration of a single night
- country to capital or from one capital city to the next. The
schedules made no real attempt to accommodate the Indian Pacific
traveller, and the trip to Western Australia essentially began at
Adelaide. Nobody batted an eye at a normal overnight interstate
journey - well, to be honest, that early morning cross-platform change
of trains at Albury was an annoyance to too many generations. But what
the f****, the train was still the most comfortable way to travel,
particularly after the advent of air conditioning made it so quiet. A
lot posher than in Granddad's day!

Don Galt