XPT Sleepers

["Matt Lucas" <matt@smart.net.au>]

I travel often between Melb- Syd, and Syd - Bne or Murwillumbah - Syd in the
XPT Sleepers.  1 of the main problems with these is the lack of "roomette"
(single) sleepers.   Each train has 9 rooms, 18 beds, but all in twinettes.
To travel on the train in my own berth, as I do not want to share a room
with a lot of people who I have seen on that train (no offence) - especially
when the PSS walks through the train telling me to lock to door as people,
and I quote "May have been injecting up in the toilets at Spencer St, and
may wander in".  This gives me only the option of paying for 2 berts, and
being a rail fan I have often done this, but it is far more expensive than
flying and I think that Countrylink are doing the exact opposite to trying
to attract passangers. Just about every time I have travelled on this train
there have been 2 or more rooms with only 1  person in them.  Worse still,
often I have tried to book 2 berths, and there have been 2 singles, same
sex, in two different rooms- (so if I was to travel I would be in a
different rooom to the friend i was travelling with) even before they have
been ticketed, CountryLink have refused to combine them to allow me to
purchase 2 berths! - Are these people asking me to fly?  Who wants to share
a sleeper when you are paying for 2 berth and a friend is 2 doors down the
train? so CountryLink misses out on 2 return Full fare sleepers ($800 or so)
and I fly up - Well the options of sharing a sleeper or sitting up all night
for roughly the same as an air fare ($180 return seat, $200 airfare most of
the year) just arent appealing. - And i know the PSS can request people to
move but on more than 1 occsion people have refused, leaving the PSS
poewerless and me standing at Sydney Terminal at 8:40pm, after the last
flight with a very difficult decision - pay for a hotel, share or sit up-
Not good enough CountryLink.

Why not have car A as Twinettes, Car B as First Class Seats, remove the crew
compartment from car C- There is already 1 in Car A, and make it Single
sleepers then have 1/2 of car D as First, then a wall, and the other 1/2 as
econ. - then if more seats are required, use some of the luggage space in
Car G for econ and relocate baggage around the train- Ie. Doorway
compartments as in Car A, or possible in the Power Cars- not sure if any
room is avalible, or make 1 door per car as GSR do and use the extra space
for luggage.

This would also allow for more first class seats to be avalible for daylight
passangers for singles who dont care if they are in a compartment - I dont
think removing some space from Econ would hurt greatly, as Econ always seams
to have some seats while first is generally full.  CountryLink sleeper fares
are so expensive I think that they should have priority on filling them -
not turing passangers away with radicilious excuses like "We cant move
people around the train after a booking has been made".  WHY??????? for
years domestic airlines have had airport assign seating- why cant
Countrylink do this too- then I am sure XPT sleepers could attract at least
20% more passangers than they currently do.

Just one more complaint- Why can surfboards and bikes be taken abord - wiuth
a totally radicilous system of packing and pre- booking and Snow Skis are
not allowed??????  this is just stupid..