Re: Countrylink website.

["Matthew Halpin" <matthewh@aljan.com.au>]

During the three week period from February 14th to March 8th, I made the
following trips:

Grafton XPT:  Fassifern - Coff's Harbour
Murwillumbah XPT:  Coff's Harbour - Byron Bay
Murwillumbah XPT:  Byron Bay - Murwillumbah & Coach to Brisbane
Brisbane XPT:  Brisbane - Sydney
Central West XPT:  Sydney - Orange
Outback Express:  Orange - Broken Hill
Indian Pacific:  Broken Hill - Adelaide
The Ghan:  Adelaide - Melbourne
WCR: Melbourne - Camperdown (then WCR Day Trip)
WCR: Warrambool - Melbourne
V/Line:  Melbourne - Albury
Melbourne XPT: Albury - Strathfield
Cityrail: Strathfield - Fassifern

The lady at the Country Link travel centre at Broadmeadow who booked this
for me was excellent,she went through  a number of options to find the
cheapest fares, and when she was booking each trip she made sure that I had
window seats.

I must say the level of service I received on each of the XPT's was
excellent, especially from Fassifern to Coff's Harbour, on this service the
Woman sitting next to me had a broken arm, and the staff were fantastic in
the way they looked after her.  The only time I saw one of Countrylink's
staff become a bit of a grump was when she caught a passenger opening the
external doors as we were pulling out of a station.

The staff on the Outback Express were like the journey itself, fantastic,
you could see that this was one trip the staff enjoyed working.  This is a
trip that everybody should do.

I was unimpressed with the Indian Pacific and The Ghan, in general the staff
were not that friendly, and to winge about my tick having a few folds in it
was a joke.  I also found the "Video Entertainment" do ruin what could have
been a good journey, the volume was either too low and be annoying
background noise or so loud  it was frustrating.

West Coast Rail's staff were excellent.  West Coast Rail seem to be doing
something strange and encouraging people back onto rail, and the Day Tour
they offer was excellent value.

The staff on V/Line seemed to be very overworked, I don't know if they were
short staffed but I only sore two people on the train, but with there
limited resources they did provide a good service.

I know some people are turned off by bad experiences, I know I have been,
however there is one important thing to remember there are bad staff and
there are bad customers.

I am only new to travelling by train, and by no means I will be giving it
up, might avoid Cattle Class on GSR though.  I found the service from
Country Link  to be excellent, and no, I have no relationship with any rail
company whatsoever, except as a satisfied customer.