I've thought we need a good rail service between our major cities to avoid being too reliant on air travel.

I think privatisation of Australian National has caused the new owners to be focused on one area only is the very wealthy once in a lifetime travellers.

BTW I do have a soft spot for interurbans.

Regards
Geoffrey
________________________________
From:TramsDownUnder@... TramsDownUnder@...> on behalf of 'Brian'bblunt@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2017 3:10:33 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Re: Sydney Airport chaos continues after wild weather caused flight cancellations

The cheapest IP fare SYD-PER is now around $2000 (off season). Seems they don't offer seating only service any more.

I couldn't find a single bus service operator from Sydney to Perth, presumably you would need to use at least 2 operators to do the trip now. One website estimates the fare at about $600 each way. I flew over on Jetstar last year for $250 return.

Brian

----- Original Message -----
From: TramsDownUnder@...

To:
TramsDownUnder@...>
Cc:

Sent:
16 Sep 2017 02:14:31 +0000
Subject:
Re: [TramsDownUnder] Re: Sydney Airport chaos continues after wild weather caused flight cancellations

There's the small matter of journey time too - stretching out 4 days to 10 is fine if you have nothing else to do in life!

IP and Ghan are indeed hotels or cruise ships on rails. There is now about 6 additional hours on the IP's trip compared to 1970 due to the side tours along the route that they've introduced. There's also only one train a week, not two. A return economy ticket in 1970 was $125 which, by the Reserve Bank's calculator, represents about $1,400 today. I think the pensioner rates have all but gone. Motorail is now only available from Adelaide westwards..

I think my last trip to Adelaide was about 25 years ago. Sleeper on Western Mail from Sydney to Parkes, breakfast at Parkes RRR where another bloke was having a beer with his steak and eggs at 7 am! Then Silver City Comet where the conductor thought we were too cramped in economy and kindly put us in first class on a near-empty train, then sitting car on IP from Broken Hill to Port Augusta, Bluebird to Adelaide. Rode the Glenleg tram (H class) and Red Hens of course. Then back by Bluebird to PA and sleeper and the whole works on IP as a treat back to Sydney. That mixture represented the railway days now long gone!

I think I'm starting to itch with interest in the NSL too as a result of your frequent little tasters!

Tony P

---InTramsDownUnder@..., <arg@...> wrote :

So what do you expect when the train has been turned into an overpriced land bound cruise ship for the useless parasitic rich ?

Aviation is like the mining industry - if it had to pay full compensation for the environmental damage it inflicts it wouldn’t exist beyond very limited parameters.

Tony G - too much NSL is never enough !