Re: Eight car XPT sets on Bris XPT

[Bob <gioia@fastlink.com.au>]

wrote:

> I live beside the train line at Salisbury Qld and at least on two occasions in the past week have seen eight car XPT sets on the Syd-Bris XPT service.
>
> Does anyone know if this due to a shortage of carriages or is it a scheduled reduction in consists?

I understand that numerous APT trailers are presently stored at Eveleigh. Rumour has it that if you reduce the consist by one car it helps to fill the
train and you can claim that all services are running to full capacity. Also it has been done to assist with the current shortage of power cars where they
are running a one and a half power car set with one good and one sick power car. With one less trailer it helps the sick unit from a possible hemorrhage.
Bob