Re: [VIC] Melb cup weekend

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Stuart Thyer wrote:
> >
> >BTW, if a railfan group ran a reasonably priced tour that had wooden
> >cars and a reasonable number of photostops I would go on it instead of
> >motorcading. Unfortunately this is not happening so our money is going
> >to the oil companies instead of the railfan groups.
> 
> Hmmmm let's see, Steamrail is running a reasonable priced tour with wooden
> cars and plenty of photostops AND double headed K and D3, over 4 whole days!
> Prices around the $500 are, I believe, pretty good when you look at the
> interstate equivelents where an RTM 2 day weekender in steel cars and a
> diesel are around $300. Don't forget $50 goes to little Johnny and the tax
> man.

I was mainly referring to the lack of good day trips. There isn't one
railfan day trip planned for the rest of 2000 and I can't remember the
last time that happened. Except for the Easter tours, Steamrail has run
nothing but tourist trips all year. In addition to this, the other
groups are keeping very silent. If there was a tour coming up in
October, then the brochure would surely be out by now.

As for the Robinvale tour, it is right in the middle of my exams so it
is at the wrong time of the year for me. Even so, your claim of a $500
price is a bit misleading. It is $515 for the fare in a non-aircon beth.
Then you have to add $125 for meals because the tour is way too long to
bring your own food and some of those towns don't exactly have a great
selection either. This means that it will really cost $640 for the
non-aircon beth option. For me and my parents, this would end up costing
$1920 just for a trip to Robinvale! 

With some of the nuts you get on these trips, there is no way that I
would even consider spending an entire weekend sharing a compartment
with someone I had never previously met. This means that for three
people, one of them has to book in the LAN if they don't want to share
with motormouth or some other nut. The price for the LAN was $595. With
an additional $125 for meals, this works out to be $720 just for one
person. This means it would really cost $2000 for us.

The other option of a bench seat would be ok for the traditional Fri
night-Sat-Sun weekender, but I would find it a bit uncomfortable for
four full days and three nights instead of two nights and two days.

If the prices for the non-aircon berths were around $500 with all meals
included, then I would agree that it is a reasonable price. $640 is the
realistic price for a non-aircon berth and I think this is a bit too
high for the average person. The price of this tour is much higher than
the Kulwin and Panitya ones back in 1998. The fares for both of those
trips were lower and the meal costs were also lower because they were
the traditional overnight or two night formats.
  
-- 
- James Brook -

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