Didn't Victoria kick in for one of the XPTs?

If I’m remembering rightly, the Vics jointly funded two sets. Then Kennett convinced the PTC to sell its share back to NSW. Which, as it turns out, was a pretty brilliant move, because NSW didn’t take the bait and cut the service!

Which is probably just as well...

Has anybody actually been to Southern Cross station when the XPT has arrived or is ready to depart and seen how many people actually use this service


Mike.

Has anybody actually been to Southern Cross station when the XPT has arrived or is ready to depart and seen how many people actually use this service

I’ve been on it, and yes it is a good thing that it runs. But that just proves Victoria got a good deal!

I, too, have used the XPT occasionally. It has been some years, though, and my recollection is that generally the V/Line services were busier. But that may be because of the timing of the services and limited stops by the XPT rather than anything else.

Has anybody actually been to Southern Cross station when the XPT has arrived or is ready to depart and seen how many people actually use this service

Average daily patronage in each direction between Melbourne and Sydney is roughly 500 people, with two-thirds favouring the daytime service (pensioners travel poorly at night).

Victoria should just ignore them. The NSW government already provides them with 2 return XPT services a day to Melbourne and the service will continue when the new train arrives.

Do you have some sort of shrine to John Whitton in your bedroom?

This thread is like a game of demented Railpage bingo: sims injecting New South Wales glorification at random, Michael dropping in his hatred for the SRL, bevans making baseless remarks about the VLocity...

PIMM your remark about demented Railpage bingo does not make the justification for the SRL any greater. No one and I mean no one was discussing a heavy rail orbital rail before it was released in the ALP manifesto. Why because it isn't needed. It is a project that is purely speculative and relies in the main of jobs being relocated from the CBD Docklands and Southbank. And your rational, that it is unsustainable to run empty trains from the city. So to remedy the situation lets build a $50 Billion SRL.

I find it galling that you are so opposed to Electrification to Geelong, a corridor that sees trains every 10 mins at peak and is rapidly approaching the situation which will require the corridor to be electrified. There are very few train networks operating such intense services using DMU's. And again here is a corridor that will probably reach critical mass as suburbs like Wyndhamvale and Tarneit are bursting at the seams. Electrification will be needed and yet you cite cost as being too great to justify whilst justifying  $50 Billion on the SRL.

I agree with your summation about NSW to a point. Interurban and Metro Journeys for both NSW and Vic are similar. Sims sometimes tiresome NSW glorification is irritating, but using Sydney and Melbourne Rail Networks as an example, Sims has a bloody point! The Sydney system is a far reaching system approaching the complexity of suburban networks in Europe. And which is about to be enhanced by Sydney Metro.

Melbourne's system on the other hand is just a glorified branch line network. A network that has a significant percentage of single line corridors. A network that in the Western suburbs is served by V/Line diesel using stock that is seriously old and should be scrapped, during the peak.

I would rather the Vic Government deliver the Melbourne Metro 2 than the SRL.

Michael

No mention of long-haul VLocitys.

I find it galling that you are so opposed to Electrification to Geelong, a corridor that sees trains every 10 mins at peak and is rapidly approaching the situation which will require the corridor to be electrified. There are very few train networks operating such intense services using DMU's. And again here is a corridor that will probably reach critical mass as suburbs like Wyndhamvale and Tarneit are bursting at the seams. Electrification will be needed and yet you cite cost as being too great to justify whilst justifying $50 Billion on the SRL.

Sheesh, don’t get your knickers in a twist. In fact I never said I was opposed to electrification to Geelong. I do understand how it could be read that way, but my comment above was simply discussing fuel costs as a justification for electrification, and I’ve stated many times on this thread and elsewhere that I believe electrification is urgently required to Geelong and probably to Ballarat as well. The benefits are many, particularly top speed and acceleration.

The Edinburgh-Glasgow mainline (via Falkirk) was at least as intense as the Geelong Line prior to its electrification last year, but I mention that merely as a matter of academic interest.

And if you want to reprosecute our SRL arguments, be my guest - I do enjoy them - but let’s do it in the appropriate forum. I will say here that you praise the “complexity” of the Sydney network at the same time as you discredit adding orbital connections to Melbourne’s, but perhaps I will let sleeping dogs lie...

V/Line have customer issues on the Gippsland line from this post



Bairnsdale on the current configuration seems substandard to the N sets which have better facilities and more toilets.  One size does not fit all it seems.

V/Line have customer issues on the Gippsland line from this post

Bairnsdale on the current configuration seems substandard to the N sets which have better facilities and more toilets.  One size does not fit all it seems.

Rubbish.........................Velocities are far more modern than than 40 years old N Class diesels and the clapped out carraiges that are 40 and 50 years old, pull your head out of the sand and get into the modern age, but of course you are from the Stone Age with stone age ideas.

The Vlocities with the hard slimline seating, including those with the single toilet should never be seen on the likes of the Gippsland line.

They should be restricted to Melton, Wyndham Vale and at a pinch, Waurn Ponds services.

With only 8 of these trains in service, that shouldn't be too difficult, if anybody in any control of the situation cared that is.

The Vlocities with the hard slimline seating, including those with the single toilet should never be seen on the likes of the Gippsland line.

They should be restricted to Melton, Wyndham Vale and at a pinch, Waurn Ponds services.

With only 8 of these trains in service, that shouldn't be too difficult, if anybody in any control of the situation cared that is.

There are only 4 of these orphan sets with the crap seats and single toilet. Only supposed to be used on Wyndham Vale, Melton and the Marsh but lazy VLP doesnt care and they go anywhere.  The rock hard seats are shockers.

Yes, quite right, there are only 4 with the single toilet. These are VL76 through to VL79.

All of the next 12 built (VL80 through VL89 as well as VL91 & VL92, I'm not sure if VL90 has been released, I am yet to see it) have also got the same terrible slimline seats.

With the 4 single toilet units and the 12 newer units, that makes for 16 3 car sets, or 8 coupled up 2x3VLs.

None of these units should be used on anything longer than Waurn Ponds.

---

Mercifully the SG sets, VS93 onwards use the old seat design from VL00 to VL75

Why would V/Line order 4 sets so different to every other set produced ?

I also think you were a bit harsh on 8501

Agree that the trains aren't designed for long-distance work and should not be placed on such runs however I would happily take this scenario over no train at all.

Agree that the trains aren't designed for long-distance work and should not be placed on such runs however I would happily take this scenario over no train at all.

V Line would like to hear that; it will encourage the management to believe that commuters are happy to put up with rubbish.

Agree that the trains aren't designed for long-distance work and should not be placed on such runs however I would happily take this scenario over no train at all.

V Line would like to hear that; it will encourage the management to believe that commuters are happy to put up with rubbish.

Oh it is rubbish alright. V/Line are still running services with 1980's locomotives, pulling 1980's N type carriages or worse still H type carriages converted from 1950/60's vintage EMU's. Only in Victoria.

The Velos, although nice are just an Xplorer or Endevour with a different body shape. So in essence the Velocity is a 1990's train. The Xplorer and Endevour on the other hand are being replaced in NSW.


Mannie

There’s a difference between the age of the design and the age of the unit. The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is still in production, production having first started in 1954.