Regional rail travel on the rise but new trains still years away from delivery

The slow track segments need to be fixed. One by one for the next 50 years. Instead of the pipe dream of doing it all at once.

The Vline trip via the Monaro and Cann River is very scenic and soothing and hardly a glimpse of those blots on the landscapes AKA sun miners and wind harvesters.

Murrays provides fast hourly public transport between Canberra and Sydney. If governments provided a small subsidy, Murrays’ concession fares could match those of government-owned train and coach services.

We has Swiss guests who we dropped at Yass to go to Sydney last week. The station was uncared for, one side was almost derelict. The train was 1.5 hours late. This is the main line between our two largest cities. It was embarrassing.

It is disrespectful of the community that the train system should be so disgraceful. Most of the problems can be fixed with appropriate management.

New trains and more services between Sydney Canberra and Melbourne are the next step.

No chance any government will invest even what is needed for ‘semi fast’ rail in this country, let alone on the Canberra – Sydney line. At this point, I’d be happy with an approach where upgrades to lines are simply delivered as part of ongoing O&M. I.e. when rail needs to be replaced etc, incremental upgrades to improve alignments are also undertaken. Any major investment to deliver significant improvements will never happen.

That’s what happens when you governments care only for the ballot box, and not for trying to deliver on a longer term legacy. And us as voters should take some of the blame for that outcome too.

The XPTs ran as 7 car sets for a long time (5 for Dubbo). They were cut to 5 cars (4 for Dubbo) years ago. The cars are stored. Reactivate them. My dad travelled from Seymour to Yass Junction a few days ago. The 2 trains he wanted to use were full. He booked his 3rd choice. Not cool.

Also, decide whether the 2 cars they removed from the 2 Moree sets should be included in the 2 Armidale sets or be switched to the 2 Canberra sets.

Also, take an Endeavour set from Newcastle, and attach it to the Canberra trains as far as Goulburn. Force folks who want to travel intermediate stops to use those 2 cars and leave the 3 existing cars as reserved seats for travel from further out. One set would be sufficient. They run 3 services a day on our route with 2 trains, and the 2 trains always cross north of Goulburn. Usually somewhere near Moss Vale. So the local set will always spend an hour or so sitting at Goulburn. Reinstate the up railmotor dock next to Plarform 1. Have the local cars at the down end of the train.

Trains arriving from Sydney dump the local 2 cars in the dock, open their doors, then the driver goes back to car 3, disconnects, reverses past the points, proceeds into Platform 1, collects awaiting passengers for Canberra, and departs.

Trains headed to Sydney can have the local cars left unlocked. Intending passengers can wait aboard. Through 3 cars arrive and stop on Platform 1. Its driver disembarks, walks to the local 2 car set, reverses it past the points, proceeds to dock with the Through 3 cars, walks to the front, unlocks doors for any last minute local passengers, and then proceeds to Sydney.

And on services where the drivers are swapped at Goulburn, they can skip half that rigmarole anyway, and shift the local cars on and off Platform 1 with the other available driver. Helpful if the train is running late and they want to regain a few minutes.