I have wanted to know where does the Vinelander go to? I saw carriages of the Vinelander at Steamrail's Newport workshops on the open days.
Mike. What was the usual consist in terms of rolling stock please?
Black Thursday night, the day before Easter.
Is there still such thing these days for V/Line trains ?
Or Is It just that there are x amount of seats (no different to normal) and you miss out on a seat If you don't book early enough ?
A charter bus (or more) running along side trains for people despite for a public transport journey.
Usually Christmas sees double consists (2 locomotives and 8 carriages) to places like Warrnambool and Swan Hill. That's usually about it for adding extra cars for special occasions. Used to happen a lot more.
In its last incarnation as an overnight service 4 nights a week each way . N class, D Van, BZ.BRS.ACZ.Roomette.Twinette,Motorail . patronage mid week as low as 60 beyond Maryborough . Highest passenger subsidy of any VLP long distance Inter City passenger service.
Christmas day only....that's because it's free travel and our Sikh and other friends take full advantage and travel to far flung hitherto unknown destinations such as Bairnsdale, Warrnambool and Swan Hill.
This has nothing to do with anything else except it's free travel for a day.
Mike.
Interesting you say the figures were as 'low as 60' beyond Maryborough.
Actually in view of the hyperbole over passenger rail services to the north west these past 20 years, I'd have thought the figures would have been far LESS
As a matter of interest when I was working in western Queensland for a while last year...I was able to travel by the overnight Brisbane to Charleville, 'Westlander' train which travels over 800 Km.
On one occasion the train left Brisbane with 6 pax on board...I was one of them.
Kinda makes 60 look a respectable number....
Mike.
I know this is way off topic, but isn't The Westlander among the named loco hauled Queensland trains getting the chop this year? I could be mistaken though. If so, it's not surprising with only half a dozen passengers on some trains. As for 60 past Maryborough, that is still a fairly low number for a 4 or 5 carriage train, It's not much more than a road coach load really.
To digress slightly, Mike's reference to Black Thursday stirred the aged memory. It used to be organised bedlam at Spencer Street.
Carriages and locos were dredged up from anywhere and everywhere - trains were leaving, others were immediately being docked at the just-vacated platforms, and to this day I still marvel that it all seemed to work. The other aspect was the guys who logged all the consists and engines attached thereto. The whole lot was published, and I wish I'd kept at least one copy.
To digress slightly, Mike's reference to Black Thursday stirred the aged memory. It used to be organised bedlam at Spencer Street.
Carriages and locos were dredged up from anywhere and everywhere - trains were leaving, others were immediately being docked at the just-vacated platforms, and to this day I still marvel that it all seemed to work. The other aspect was the guys who logged all the consists and engines attached thereto. The whole lot was published, and I wish I'd kept at least one copy.
Even further off topic I'm afraid...
The Westlander has been 'getting the chop' for the last 18 months....it's still trundling along twice a week as we speak...
Mike.
Even further off topic I'm afraid...
The Westlander has been 'getting the chop' for the last 18 months....it's still trundling along twice a week as we speak...
Mike.
The axing of the respective states trains is in part based on the finacial status of the respective state at the time. People quickly forget how borke Vic was in 1991, $60B for 3m people. Land taxes, 25% office vacancy in the CBD, tax to bail out Pyramid Building Society, selling what hadn't been previously leased.
Did you live here in the early 1990's? Things weren't nearly as bad as the conservatives painted them out to be; I actually think there's more unemployment now than there was back then - it's just that they're better at hiding the unemployed now-days in 'work for the dole' and the universities. Selling the SEC has pushed our retail prices to among the highest in the world; however Jeff saw the opportunity as the first state to push mass privatisations and because we were the first it was the most successful.
Pyramid was beyond anyone's control but making the decision to guarantee the damn thing was a stupid mistake in my opinion. On the other hand, if they hadn't done that then tens of thousands of (mostly rural) people would have lost their life savings... damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I had family members who lived in one of the towns that lost their rail service under Jeff; not only did they lose their train but there were mass-sackings in services like health, justice and the water services. You can't attract new residents (a la their current campaign to convince people to move to the 'regions') by stripping services; city people are already turned off by the fact that you can't get services easily in the bush. Tourism and businesses really suffered - you could drive down the main street and every third shop was empty... it recovered for a while about 10 years ago but it's even worse than the early 90's today.
The fact that the State of Queensland Is spiling deeper and deeper In to crippling debt, means the camels back has to break very soon with the trains future.
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