Re: (NSW) How good are our trains?

[Paul <nobody@one.net>]

I was able to buy a drink from a tokyo express train (ie: express
suburban) in Japan from a vending machine.

I dont think that the Australian rail system is poor. The fares
are cheap, the trains are usually about 90 - 95% on time or near
it, and they go a fair distance. By the way, 40 km is absolutely
nothing in this country where cities spread over hundreds of
square Kilometres. In Switzeralnd, 40km might be like going from
Sydney to Newcastle (relatively - in terms of the relative
commuting times). The train I travelled on in japan wouldnt have
gone 30km - but that was considered long distance, and we were out
of tokyo within minutes.

Brendan

Roderick Smith wrote:
> 
> There has just been a mention of one in misc.transport.rail.europe :
> Suedostbahn's Zuerich - Eisiedeln in Switzerland, which has a bar car on a
> ~40 km journey.  I recall that one passenger was able to purchase and
> consume a beer in the equivalent of Melbourne to Richmond.  One of the
> lighter interburban railways in the Solothurn area runs a bar in the back
> cab of an articulated tram (as does a German operator).
> 
> European services tend to be faster and cleaner than Australian ones, with
> none of the Victorian concept that trains have to go slowly for the first 6
> km, and slowly over crossovers, and slowly through stations at which they
> are express.
> 
> The original NSW single-deck interurban design had a buffet planned (half a
> vehicle, bar stools at a counter); no buffet was built.
> 
> --
> Regards
> Roderick Smith
> Rail News Victoria Editor
> 
> Eric Cartman <erk_cartman@yahoo.com> wrote in article
> <87of8s$vjq$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
> > Can you imagine it if we have bars and buffet on Cityrail services? The
> > trains are dirty enough and there are enough security/staff problems
> > that have been well documented in the media and this ng. I think the
> > writer of this letter is comparing longer distance services which would
> > compare to CountryLink. When was the last time anyone saw a buffet etc
> > on a NY style subway/metro etc.