[QLD] Tilt train experience

[james_ccj@my-deja.com]

 Last Sunday I took the tilt train for the 1st time, 1st impression the
exterior look somewhat resemble Japan's class 283 tilt train:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/%7Emt5h-nitu/galry/galry2/spozr.jpg

 the economic class is 2+2 seating still give plenty of leg room, just
as good as ICEs, I noticed the TV screen is much closer to the
passengers then airlines. Before the boarding commenced , the train was
serving at Exhibition end of the platform 10. Train was completely
full, even in business class as we left Roma Street. Strange enough
there were both trolly service and galley for passengers "This is a
perfect train"! I though...

As we glide through Central station, the TV showed all the safety
features and one thing "irratated" me was the "stay seated as much as
possible while train is at full speed" . Actaully tilt train is VERY
VERY smooth, even the train is at full speed or curvey section the
rides is so much better then IMU on Gold Coast rail, I attemped to walk
during those condition and found no trouble at all.On the way to
Rockhampton we watched 2 movies, both were very recent and highly
entertaning, much better then the VERY boring documentry showed on
Qantas flight previous day. There are also 6 audio channels to choose,
ranging from pop music, jazz, comedy, news, story telling etc.

Despite it was a Sunday,we met number of trains on North Coast line:
5 freight trains, 2 coal trains , 1 empty working of ICE, it seems to
me the weekly ICE still follow its original timing rather then leave
Rocky immediately on Saturday evening. saw class 4000-07,06,05 at
Maryborough West and 4003, 4004 at Gladstone, alone with very shining
class 2000-31,32(with white curtain!)and accident damaged 3902. 7 hours
is really not all that long, when I got off the train, I still felt
refreshing as ever.

Having checked out the beautiful Archer Park Station on Denison Street
painted with beautiful red color along with some "wax-passengers"
waited on the platform. a freight train hauled by 2832 slowly glide
through Dension Street, any proposal to bypass this section?

The next day, I tried out business class for a change, yesterday's
economic class was impressive enoguh but business class is like haven!
Before departure, drinks and newspapar/magazines are given to the
passengers. Moring tea, lunch is included with the fare. Interesting
enough to see windscreen wiper on the TV when rain!

Despite number of major project to upgrade the North Coast line, there
are still number of tight curves. Especially in between Gympie North
and Brisbane Roma Street, any improvement on this stretch might be
expansive as the route go through some National Parks and housing.
There were 2 "sugar-cane rail draw bridge" to prevent slowing down of
the train while at crossings, I wondered if any more installed bewteen
Rocky and cairns for the Deisel tilt train?

One last thing I noticed was the timetabling is very conserved, we
could do a lot better, less then 6 hours can be achieve easily.
On the return journey we hit 168kph, forward journey only gone as fast
as 160kph and most of the time , the speed was kept below 140kph but
both trip were on time. The return jorney involved some longer stopping
time. Acceleration was very fast and smoother then ICE.

Overall I was highly impress with this train and highly recommand
everyone to try out no matter if you are a railfan or not. This train
IS the premier train of Australia hopefully we can get some similar
units to run interstate routes.

--
Cheers
James


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