Re: Wonderful, Customer-Responsive GSR

[crookesp@aol.com (Crookesp)]

In article <69m1eh$l1a$1@news.mel.aone.net.au>, "Barry" <one@microsoft.com>
writes:

>Overnight trains for point to point travel are dead as a money making
>venture in Australia. Not only that, they do not even perform a public
>service as other modes of transport fill the gaps quite adequately and they
>just take up track space that could be used by real (that is freight)
>trains.
>
>
>

Not necessarily.

I'll be travelling as a visitor in Australia in May. We'll arrive in Melbourne,
make a visit to Bendigo, thence Sydney, Gosford, Taree, Brisbane and Cairns. We
leave for USA / London / Berlin on May 31.

I would very much like to use trains for most of this travel. I dislike
driving. The driver never sees the scenery, only the road, which is boring.

You ignore one enormous advantage of the overnight train for the visitor: that
it avoids the cost of a hotel overnight stay and delivers the traveller
painlessly, well-slept and refreshed, right into the heart of town, so also
avoiding the traditionally expensive airport to downtown cost.

For instance, we can go on the Melbourne Sydney overnight express with a
sleeper leaving at midnight. That allows us to get back from Bendigo in the
afternoon, find dinner and a show in Melbourne, join our train and ber
delivered to Sydney overnight. No hotel, no boring driving, no sleazy bus
station, no expensive trek out to the airport in taxis where the meter is
worked by a foot-pedal,  no worries.

Which other mode of transport offers that advantage?

There is a market for long-haul passenger travel in Australia. It's not
promoted here in Europe as well as it could be, which may account for lower
revenue figures on the passenger side. But it's there...

*Philip*