Re: (Vic)Mildura passenger service plan

[Sam Eades <eadess@yahoo.com>]

Dave Proctor wrote:

> Vaughan Williams wrote in message <874bb6$mlj$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>
> >What Mildura really should be getting is a much better standard of
> >service than it had before the demise of the Vinelander. Say, two
> >daylight trains (fast ones - should be able to do it in say 5 or 6
> >hours) plus a slower overnight service.
>
> You are kidding, aren't you? Three trains a day to Mildura? What drugs are
> you on, I want some!

I think that one service per dy to Mildura would be sufficient, perhaps
overnight one way, daylight the other? If they did this, then the train would
have at least 2 hours layover at each destination, with only the need of one set
to provide a daily service. The overnight leg could use sleeper cars and they
could be used (as are the XPTs) as sitting accomodation for daylight passengers.
Perhaps even a dining car for the daylight leg (no use during night as it would
be after 9.45pm and before 7.00am).

With this option, you could use a fixed set (perhaps of former Vinelander cars)
which would not impact on other VLP services. This set would require a snack
bar, first and economy sitters and first and economy sleepers, a power/luggage
van, perhaps a Dining car and hopefully a Motorail car.

I think that a dining car and motorail could be quite an earner for VLP if the
price was right.

> >What PTUA would like to see:
> >* Half hourly trains to Ballarat with some straightening of curves on
> >that line to speed up trains. Scrap any plans for expensive super-
> >dooper high speed trains and just use sprinters or the new "super
> >sprinters" on repaired and in places realigned track. For example, that
> >curve where the line wanders off to Bungaree (was there a local member
> >there who wanted the line through his home town or was it just the
> >hill?)
>
> Oh dear oh deary me.
>
> This would be better than what is in NSW, which has the best medium
> distances services (in terms of frequency) in the country. The only medium
> distance services here that operate at a frequency of two per hour are the
> Mental Coast - and even then, only Woy Woy, Gosford, Tuggerah and Wyong get
> them.
>
> The Illawarra and the Blue Mountains (both of which are conurbations with a
> much higher population than that on the Ballarat line) make do (quite well
> too) with an hourly service.

I think that Hourly services would be sufficient to Ballarat, with 4 extra
services per day via Geelong.

> >* These ballarat trains would then alternate between Maryborough and
> >Ararat to provide each of these with an hourly service. Some M/B trains
> >could be extended to Donald (?)
>
> Do these centres warrant an hourly service, all day, every day?

No, these places should have an early morning peak service (to arrive in
Melbourne before 9.00am) then perhaps services every 3 or 4 hours. These places
DO need trains more than once per day, but a service every hour would not be
sustainable.

> Who holds the electorate around the Geelong area? Labor, Liberal or
> National? Is it marginal?

Very Marginal. At the state election recently, I think that Labor won by about
100 votes.


Sam Eades