Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

For about two more XPs, the existing carriages are capable of providing
three services per day between Melbourne and Sydney, two per day Sydney -
Brisbane, one per day Sydney - Murwillumbah, one per day Sydney - Dubbo.

Ex Melbourne:
morning Brisbane (Lidcombe)
midday Sydney (Terminal)
evening Brisbane (Lidcombe)

Ex Sydney:
morning Melbourne (Lidcombe)
midday Melbourne (Terminal)
evening Melbourne (Lidcombe)

Ex Sydney:
morning Brisbane (Lidcombe)
early evening Brisbane (Lidcombe)
late evening Murwillumbah (Terminal)

Ex Brisbane:
morning Melbourne (Lidcombe)
evening Melbourne (Lidcombe)

Ex Murwillumbah
afternoon Sydney (Terminal)


The day services between Sydney and Melbourne were done on the cheap be
extending the existing Riverina; a quota applies to Melbourne bookings.

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Sam via Jennifer <richmond@melbpc.org.au> wrote in article
> 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.