Very open-ended topic/question here, but it’s something I think about a lot - how do we get more people off the roads and on to long-distance trains? Obviously purchasing new trainsets to run more electric tilt services would be one thing, but I’m curious if anyone has particular things they think the state should be doing to get the long-distance mode share up from the abysmal state it’s undoubtedly in currently. If Victoria can do it, so can we!
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For daytime services (particularly the Westlander), it’s about speed. For the trip bme-toowoomba it’s so abysmally slow it’s not worth it. It also only comes like twice a week so pretty useless for most people. Problem is to improve speed on that line you’d need the new Inland Rail tunnel to improve the alignment, and that’s not happening any time soon
Speed on the tilts is relatively good. Some minor curve easing through northern suburbs would go a long way, as would the Beerburrum to Nambour duplication / realignment. Buying a few more tilts to double daily frequency could also be a good option
The other thing I’d like to see is proper sleepers. Particularly for the XPT. A sleeper service that departs BNE at say 6pm and arrives at 8am in Sydney the next day would be great. Only thing is the sleeper cars in the XPT suck, and we’d need to purchase another train. The advantage of a proper sleeper is that there’s no need to improve speed, people are very happy to travel through the night. The current trip is already 14 hours but it annoyingly departs Brisbane around 6AM, rather than as an overnight option
Similar sleeper services could be introduced on the XPT Mel-Syd leg, and the overlander Mel-Adelaide. Provided sleeper services were good, and the cost wasn’t astronomically high (the XPT is expensive), I think this would make it a much more viable option for a lot of people. And that’s all done without a single improvement to the alignment or track/station infrastructure
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Yes, sleepers and catering. Attached a photograph of the buffet car on the Westlander when it had both. Buffet car Westlander April 2012
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Speed. Needs to be comparable or much faster than driving.
WiFi or free internet access.
Speed, and timetabling are big for me.
A colleague of mine lives in the Wide Bay and works remotely for our Brisbane based business, on the odd occasion they need to come into the office for a meeting in person they will often have to catch the afternoon service on the previous day because the morning service only gets into Roma Street at around 10am, almost viable as a commuter service but not quite.
If they could shave 40 minutes off the trip through a combination of shorter stops and alignment improvements to bring it down to 4 hours, you could feasibly have a 5am departure in Bundaberg for a 9am arrival in the city, making it much more convenient for business travel or people who need to attend appointments in Brisbane. It would also make the train trip just about as long as driving, which is a great way to increase utilisation, everyone wants an alternative to the Bruce Highway.
Newer rollingstock would be nice as well, I pass through platform 10 at Roma Street pretty often when the electric tilter is waiting to depart and while the electric tilters still look good, they fall far short when compared to long distance trains in other countries or even other states.
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