Re: What to do with XPT?

[Matthew Nolan <mnolan@uq.net.au>]

John Engleman wrote:
> 
> Has everybody forgotten what the XPTs replaced?  The Sydney/Melbourne
> Express and The Brisbane Night Express were both fine trains that only
> needed new coaches to become truly 1st rate trains.  There was NO reason
> that the NSW intercity trains could not have been upgraded with
> re-furbished equipment instead of being replaced with the dreaded XPTs,
> except State Rail and the NSW Government did not want to spend the money
> (although in the long run.....as is true with most government
> projects......it is costing far more now) and thought that the XPTs
> would drive the remaining paying passengers away and then they could
> finally get rid of the trains altogether by claiming that they ran
> trains for pensioners only.  (I never could understand why in Australia
> that pensioners rode so cheaply or completely free anyway.  If you were
> a railroad pensioner, sure that is OK, but just any old retired
> person.....why should they ride free at everyone else's expense?)
> Anyway, in my opinion, what the NC trains and the Melbourne trains need
> is basically to bring trains like the old "style" trains back.  Trains
> with a dining car, definately a lounge car, and some space to move
> about.  And get ride of those way too bright flourescent lights and gold
> mirror windows.    As far as grouchy crews go, it takes a long, l-o-n-g,
> time to change attitudes, but it can be done.  In the US, Amtrak has
> almost won the battle of nasty crews, as they are now quite few and far
> between.  NSW crews have always (since Intercontinental Daylight days
> anyway) seemed to me to be doing things for their own (or their
> employer's) convenience, not the passengers'.
> 
> 
> 
> 
The present running time of the Sydney-Brisbane XPT is 14 hours. What is
really needed to make rail attractive and competitive is, in my opinion,
either a drastic reduction in time taken and/or as was suggested, a
return to "luxury" overnight trains. One of the major problems at the
moment is that the XPT is not really an enjoyable rail journey. We have
relatives coming out from England next year. They are keen rail
enthusiasts and travellers. However, I have recommedned that they do not
travel on the XPT as it is not a rail journey worth taking. This is
especially compared to here in Queensland where one has the option of
travelling on such trains as the Queenslander, Spirit of the Outback and
the tilt-train. All offer far superior service.

A possible solution could be to run the XPT daily from Brisbane as an
express, stopping at Casino only. For those wishing to journey from
Brisbane to intermediate stops, anoher train could be run shortly after
to service these stops. This would allow the Brisbane-Sydney XPT to
eliminate all the stops between. I travelled on the XPT in April and
figure that it could save at least an hour by doing this.

However, the travel time needs to be reduced by to at least ten hours.
There were trains in Europe (ie. London-Edinburgh) running at an average
of approx. 100km/h 50 years ago on steam. As far as I am aware, the only
train in Australia that comes close to this is the tilt train. The
problem seems to be that the mainlines in Australia were built on the
cheap between 50 and 120 years ago. For instance the North-coast line
north of Maitland was built as a series of branh lines before the line
from Kyogle to Brisbane was built. When I travelled on it there was only
one spot that i saw where the train reached 160km/h. For most of the
rest of the journey, the speed was between 80-110 km/h.

Obviously there needs to be a long-term solution to this of eliminating
the tight curves. However, improvements to the XPT could be made. They
are capable of running at 180 km/h, so why not do this. The other option
would be to use tilt-trains. Long-term, a daylight passenger service
would need to be run at speeds of up to 300 km/h and able to complete
the Sydney-Brisbane trip in around 5 hours. This would make them
competitive with air travel. Admitedly this is going to be expensive and
is probably a long way off happening, but the benefits and time/cost
savings in being able to run two trains of this type a day would be
great. Don't forget that if a passenger train can complete the journey
in 5 hours, a freight train would also similarly be able to complete the
journey in a much shorter time-frame. The savings for NR would be
immense. As an aside, would 200km/h freight trains that were 2km long be
possible?

If a daylight XPT service was to run in ten hours from Sydney to
Brisbane, with a potential five hour HST in the future, a overnight
loco-hauled train could then do the trip in 12-14 hours. This could be
in the style of the Ghan/Queenslander. It would have sleepers and a
dining and lounge car. Marketed properly, it could capture a sixable
market of tourist and travellers wanting to catch atrain to Sydney from
Brisbane. It could even extend to Melbourne.

Just some thoughts.