this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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I make the trip to Melbourne and back once a year on the sleeper and I have mixed feelings. I love the idea of going to sleep at night and waking up in Melbourne. The trip is perfectly timed, ie. you get off work, home / shower and back to Central for the evening departure, then in Melbourne before the day starts. That is all of the good bits. The not so good bits, the train is old so trying to go to sleep on it is near impossible, it creaks, it rattles continuously in ways you cant fix, the blinds hardly ever shut completely, the toilet/shower between the two cabins has never been upgraded since 1983 and the cabin service seems poor value.
The complimentary meal is a packet of 3 crackers with tomato relish, a small pack of savory sticks and a small cup of water. Breakfast since COVID is cereal and a cup of tea/coffee (before COVID you could choose toast). While I am sure the sleeper service is more comfy than sitting up, it is generally just sad / old train that will probably be in service for another 20 years.
Also, you aren't meant to use the power sockets in the sleeper carriage for anything other than a shaver. Once again, hasn't been upgraded since 1983 so the power is not very stable for electronic devices.
I am not sad they are stopping the sleeper, but I will just fly from now on.
Your review can be summarized in short: Waggons have not been updated since 40 years. Maybe they should update their waggons. Oh, they axed that plan. Again. See you here next year. And the year after.
Personally, I don’t think upgrading locomotive-hauled stock is worth investing that money into anymore. They absolutely should have a decade ago, but trying to do that now to delay an inevitable upgrade to a more efficient D/EMU design seems like a waste of money.
What I’m more frustrated about is the missed opportunity here for state cooperation. If the government’s of Qld, NSW, Vic & SA (with federal funding support) all collaborated on a long-distance train-set, then it would benefit a lot more people for a lot less money. You could replace the useless Overland service from Melbourne-Adelaide, and bring public services back to routes like Sydney-Adelaide (currently $795+ on the Indian-Pacific). It could be built with gauge-changing bogies so state regional train authorities can use it too.
But there just doesn’t seem to be any political will for that on a federal level, and the state’s certainly aren’t going to suddenly cooperate on rail standards after 150yrs of bickering.