Map SB - Rail map of Northern and Western New South Wales and S-E Queensland

Countrylink's Sydney to Dubbo XPT approaches Newbridge, West of Bathurst (Map reference A7).

Photo Courtesy Railpix

The map covers the Northern and Western parts of the State of New South Wales, and the South-Eastern part of the State of Queensland. It includes the journey between the cities of Sydney and Brisbane. The climate is generally warm on the coast, but over the hills to the west it can get quite cold in winter and very hot in summer. The coastal strip is fertile land with banana and sugar cane being major produce whilst to the west are flat dry slopes and plains supporting cattle and sheep farming and grain and cotton crops. The coastal area to the South-East of Brisbane, known as the Gold Coast, is Australia's premier coastal holiday region. It is highly developed and offers attractions for all tastes. Further south, Byron Bay is Australia's easternmost mainland town, and it is renowned as an alternative living paradise, and is a much favoured destination by backpackers. Further south again, Coffs Harbour is also a popular beachside holiday resort. Inland, the city of Tamworth is renowned as Australia's home of Country Music, hosting the annual national country music festival in January. Armidale is an elegant university city in the centre of the New England region. Further West, the cities of Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Moree and Narrabri are major service centres for the Western regions of the State of New South Wales. Bathurst is Australia's first and most historic inland city, it was in this area that Australia's first gold was found.

Long distance trains in New South Wales are operated by the Government owned operator Countrylink. Their trains are operated almost exlusively by relatively modern trains capable of reasonably high speeds - although the nature of the tracks they traverse means that speeds are limited to something like that of road vehicles. The Countrylink XPT trains are based on the British HST, and the Xplorer trains are a slightly newer railcar train. XPTs and Xplorers are fully air-conditioned and offer buffet services. Some XPT services also provide sleeping berths in two-per compartment style. Countrylink provides one daily XPT service between Sydney and Brisbane - departing Sydney each Afternoon and running overnight to Brisbane, and departing Brisbane each morning and running through the day to Sydney. There is also a daily return XPT between Sydney and Casino departing Sydney each morning and running through the day to Casino arriving in the late afternoon where you can catch a connecting bus to Lismore, Byrnon Bay, the Gold Coast and Brisbane. This train returns South from Casino to Sydney overnight. A third daily XPT runs daily between Sydney and Grafton. There is also a daily XPT service to the West running out from Sydney each morning, arriving at Dubbo early afternoon, and returning to Sydney in the afternoon. Once each week, Countrylink also operate an Xplorer train from Sydney to Broken Hill and return. The westward journey is on Monday, the return on Tuesday. A daily Xplorer service also runs from Sydney to Armidale and Moree. The train departs Sydney mid-morning, and after dividing at Werris Creek en-route ends up at Armidale and Moree in late evening. This train departs Armidale and Moree early each morning and joins at Werris Creek before arriving Sydney each afternoon.

Cityrail, the Sydney metropolitan rail operator, provide frequent trains between Sydney and Newcastle, and from Newcastle to Dungog and Scone.

Long distance trains to the West are also operated by Great Southern Railways (GSR), a private company. Their train in this region is the twice weekly "Indian Pacific" (Sydney-Adelaide-Perth). GSR's trains are locomotive hauled and offer a full range of on-board services including sleeping berths and a buffet and dining car. These trains are not generally speedy, but they are comfortable and are promoted as 'land-cruises'.

In Queensland, QR (Queensland Railways) run fast and frequent (at least hourly) electric trains from Brisbane to Robina (on the Gold Coast). They also run a comfortable but infrequent tourist train called The Westlander from Brisbane westward to Toowoomba and off the map to Charleville in the West. This train runs only twice per week.

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