Re: Goodbye Overland

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

The Overland has been killed steadily for 30 years by an unnecessarily-slow
schedule with unusable arrival times.

In the notorious 1960s the train was often late despite having a 13 hour
schedule.  Since the actual running and station stops required only 11
hours, 2 hours were allowed for crossings.  There were only two overlength
freights each way on the route.

In the years since, there has been virtually no schedule improvement until
the latest, achieved by eliminating most intermediate stops BUT, a 7.50
arrival in Melbourne is still too late.  I rode the train with a group
recently (taking the risk); the train arrived 7 min late, missing the last
connection which would have had me at work on time.

The sg route took the long way to Ararat - 30 min slower than the direct
route.

Crossing loops were removed and (in SA) intermediate follow-on signals were
removed, giving longer sections and reducing the opportunity to overtake.

Along the way the AN cruise-ship mentality has been taken on by GSR:
two classes - extortion and squalor.
I can't afford extortion, and I can't survive squalor and still be fit to
work.

This is exactly what USA managements were accused of doing in the early
1960s to eliminate passenger trains completely.

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

thalytgv@my-deja.com wrote in article <861q0e$4fk$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
> I know this route is always been a difficult route. From the start,
> relatively small number of passengers travel in between these two city,
> poor track, strong competition from bus ,air,cars and even V/line(Does
> V/line get subsidy for "daylink"? ).
> Apart from lowering the fare, GSR needs more marketing or look for wyas
> of filling the seats example extension of Overland to Perth once a week
> or extend from Melbourne end to Sydney.
> James