by The permanent withdrawal of sleeping carriages on Sydney-Melbourne trains could be avoided after the new rolling stock enters service, due to the growing demand for intercity rail.
New Spanish-built trains previously ordered by the Coalition were originally meant to enter service in January 2023, but are not expected to run before April 2026. As yet, there is no firm arrival date there.
The new trains have reclining seats but no sleeping carriages.
But New South Wales regional transport minister Jenny Aitchison told Guardian Australia the government was keeping an open mind when asked whether the existing XPT sleepers could be refurbished and added to train sets after the new rolling stock arrives , or whether there could be excess stock. used to run more scheduled services on common routes.
“We are looking at all the options we have with the current fleet,” she said, but a decision could only be made when the new trains arrived and the authorities had a chance to assess the situation old sets.
The government will wait to see whether the seats that go backwards on the new trains will be more popular with passengers than the sleeping carriages, which have only a handful of seats per service.
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“So it’s a little more agnostic until we really see what it’s like,” Aitchison said.
“Everything is on the table to see what the best option is,” she said. “Some of those trains are well maintained so is there an opportunity to improve them?”
The new trains will also have WiFi and charging points.
There is no modern connectivity on the XPT fleet, which since the 1980s has served long journeys from Sydney such as the nearly 11-hour trip to Melbourne twice a day.
The windows on the older carriages even weaken cell phone reception.
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Demand on the Sydney-Melbourne route is so high that the state-owned operator is often adding extra carriages to the twice-daily run.
Patronage on the tour – which costs $78 for an economy ticket for adults if booked five days in advance outside holiday periods, and $234 for sleeper beds – grew by 47% in 2023, and is now higher than as before the pandemic.
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Average monthly patronage figures in the run-up to Christmas – traditionally one of the busiest months – was 31,000.
For every 20 air passengers between Sydney and Melbourne in 2023, one took the train service, for at least part of the journey.
Early last year, when domestic air fares were at record highs, train patronage accounted for 7% of air travel on the world’s fifth busiest air route.
Strong night train ridership has driven much of the growth on the Sydney-Melbourne route, with monthly patronage on these services jumping by around 3,000 on average between 2013 and 2023.
Aitchison, who used to book long-distance Australian travel in his former career as a tour planner, said the overnight train was attractive to travelers looking to save money on overnight accommodation.
The service was popular with baby boomers, but there was also an increase in the number of passengers paying full fares, relying on the train’s largely concessionary fares.
“For that older demographic, they love the story [that] if they want to go to the bathroom, they want to get up and go for a walk, [if] they want to go and get food [they can],” Aitchison said. “They are not under the control of the driver.”
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One disadvantage of the train is that there are only two services a day in each direction, and the journey takes longer than by car.
Unlike many electrified intercity services overseas, Australia’s intercity trains still run on diesel, with services rarely reaching the nominal top speed of 160km/h due to the lack of significant upgrades to the track built over 100 years ago. Even with the new fleet of trains travel time will not be reduced without investment to improve the track.
Track upgrades and potential diversions would require the cooperation of the Commonwealth and its Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), the national body that runs much of the nation’s track, including the Sydney-Melbourne line. speed up interstate routes.
Aitchison said there was an argument that the federal government would provide more funding for NSW operations, since they served many other states and territories.
She said NSW also had a responsibility to nurture Australia’s long-distance travel culture until the Commonwealth delivered its High Speed Rail Project – the first part of which is set for Sydney-Newcastle – in the coming years.
“If you went straight to the … gold-plated high-speed train … and you haven’t built any patronage because people aren’t using … what we have, so [high-speed rail] it becomes a bit of a pie in the sky.”
Aitchison stressed that the NSW government was open to hearing from rail experts and the public about track upgrades and other means of improving services in regional areas, and urged submissions as part of the government’s strategic integrated regional transport planning process.
“We’re trying to change that consultation method … people who are motivated to tell us things, we just need to hear them a lot better,” Aitchison said.
