Re: $99 one-way airfares : Who needs the XPT

[Dion Williams <onamission@today.com.au>]

Dave Proctor wrote:

> "Barry Campbell" <campblbm@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
> DDX95.32329$N4.1246003@ozemail.com.au">news:DDX95.32329$N4.1246003@ozemail.com.au...
> >
> > Dave Proctor wrote in message ...
> > >"David Bromage" <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in message
> > >rEV95.120$SD6.513278@news0.optus.net.au">news:rEV95.120$SD6.513278@news0.optus.net.au...
> > >> Virgin Blue will commence operations between Brisbane and Sydney on 3rd
> > >> August, initially with 7 services per day. There will be one way fares
> as
> > >> low as $99. This is even lower than Impulse is proposing, and they
> don't
> > >> start until September. This is going to murder the XPT.
> > >
> > >Only for through BNE/OOL - SYD trips - Virgin Blue will not be providing
> a
> > >service on the North Coast to places like TRO, KPS, CFS or GFN.
> > >
> > And these are, of course, giant traffic generators.
> 
> They are actually, for the XPT services. More passengers on these services
> are travelling to intermediate destinations, rather than through journeys
> from origin to destination of the service. Also, if you look at the
> backpacker market, who like to stop off at all the small towns along the
> way, spend a few days, and then move on to the next small town (something
> rather difficult with an airline that only goes from capital to capital).

Exactly. Interstate travel by rail will be dead when Virgin arrives.
Travel to middle-distance country areas for tourism purposes, however,
is something the airlines simply don't have a competitive advantage in
servicing, and it's the market Countrylink needs to start orienting
itself towards now. The XPTs were never suited to interstate trips, and
it's time they returned to the kinds of services they were actually
designed for. Concentrating on middle to semi-long distance intrastate
runs, departing at reasonable hours allowing easy connections from air,
coach and other rail services is the market rail needs to concentrate
on. Package holidays and flexible fares allowing budget tourists to hop
on and off trains at different points are two ideas. Virgin will leave
only the scraps of interstate travel to the coach industry. With a
little vite vite, some forward planning could take the initiative away
from them before the battle's even begun.

Dion