Booked out Melb XPTs

[Jennifer Richmond <richmond@melbpc.org.au>]

I have noticed that almost every Melbourne - Sydney/Sydney - Melbourne
overnight (and many day services) are booked out, resulting in
disappointed customers left behind to travel another day. This is
absolutely fantastic, that so many people want to travel by rail between
the two largest cities in the country! But it is not so fantastic that
people must be left behind because of this.

Would it be possible, to run an extra service overnight, between Sydney
and Melb? I know that there aren't enough XPT sets, but how about a loco
hauled train? Possibly a loco hauled train leaving 2 hours earlier than
the XPT, stopping at every stop (possibly even Sunshine and Seymour)
with the XPT following stopping only Albury, Wagga Wagga, Junee,
Cootamundra, Goulburn and Strathfield? This would give extra seats to
the service, give the passengers on the XPTs a good express run (after
all, they are an eXpress Passenger Train!) and keep up the service to
the smaller country towns at the same time. These services would then
arrive in Sydney at about the same time, to connect with the
Murwillumbah XPT.
Does Countrylink own/have access to enough long distance cars (possibly
sleepers as well) for this to happen? (it would require 2 full sets, a
Northbound and a Southbound).

Or, alternatively, is there room for competition? Could GSR start up a
Melbourne - Sydney overnight service? With all of the complaints
regarding Countrylink, competition may be just what is required to draw
even more passengers back to rail.

Sam Eades
eadess@yahoo.com