Why Passenger Trains Suck In Australia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- There's no avoiding the fact, wherever you go in Australia, long distance trains suck. Why is this? How can they be so bad? This video explores the history and context of Australian passenger rail, but also these trains today and their future.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:38 The State-Owned Railways
3:13 The Gauge Problem
5:52 Break-Of-Gauge Journey
8:00 Australian National
9:42 Airline Deregulation
10:35 The XPT...
11:53 Transcontinental Trains
13:35 The Overland
14:43 The 'Good Ones'
15:50 Railway Corporatisation
18:22 Cutting passenger Services
19:23 NSW that could've been
19:57 Conclusion
21:08 The Future
23:33 Outro
Special thanks to:
DangersDan707
OpenRailMap contributors
Location SA
Comrails
BusOfDoomFSX
Paul Leader
Jack Martin
Jacob's Trains
The Railpage Forums
Google Maps
The BBC
The ABC
Many Rail Photo Collections - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
You hit a key point. Trains shouldn't have to turn a profit, they are infrastructure they provide a service to the community, this allows other aspects of society to turn the profit.
I could be dumb but if They don’t make money they cannot grow And mabye improve things in the network?
@@djaan9762
The argument is a train can’t possibly capture the value it creates.
If a train operates between me and the next door town, I can go from earning 20k to 30k.
But I will never pay 10k per year for a train ticket. Also, by increased pay isn’t just mine, I then spend more in my home town on food etc.
What is best is the train charges decent fairs, (typically defined as keeping transport below 5% maybe hitting 10% of net incomes, as opposed to driving which is often in the 20% range).
This will mean the ‘train’ is ‘loosing money’ but if we then subsidise the rail by taxation, we can make it sustainable, and taxes is how we have always captured externalised profit and loss. Trains can’t estimate the value created by it, but the treasury can see the economic growth in general created in the general area, after infrastructure and tax to capture the value.
Sorry if I’ve explained poorly.
Is that a communism I hear?
@@peterkragger4824
It's called market correction.
Markets function better with greater fluidty of movement. But they can't direct resources towards the infrastructure to facilitate that. Ie we facilitate better functioning capitalism, that doesn't death spiral.
Therefore we as a society that is supposed to benefit from the market, reapportion societies market resources.
@@MrCalls1Never heard this explained so well, thanks
AW: "Passenger Trains Suck in Australia"
Tasmania: "You guys have passenger trains?"
Have there been any plans to resurrect passenger trains in Tasmania at all?
@@andyjay729 In the last few years only as light rail between Burnie/Devonport and in the northern suburbs of Hobart, also as light rail.
That was AN too, in 1977 they cancelled the Tasman Limited and all suburban trains in Hobart. I don’t think this was what Whitlam had in mind when he nationalised rail in the two Labor states SA and Tasmania.
@@darylcheshire1618 The Tasman Limited was cut in July 1978, only four months after AN took over!
@@Nick-kz6dg Yes I couldn’t remember the exact date.
Why do so many places have such crappy trains?! 😭
Cars
Adelaide certainly has terrible trains.
It’s interesting that some of the developed countries with the worst rail systems are all English-speaking former colonies. It’s like the US, Australia, and Canada all took after the practices and policies of the British rail system during the mid 20th century and, because of the highway investments, started cutting rail services left and right. Or I suppose you could say Britain, Australia, and Canada took after the US’ highway-centric ideals, but either way, it sucks.
Not East Asia
@@jacintaedwards1123, Adelaide's public transport is possibly one of the worst in the developed world. In Adelaide, bus, tram and train lines form a disjointed network that's highly complicated to use and make quick transfers while cross city travel is practically non existent. Adelaide's wide roads and free flowing road traffic during off peak hours means that bus (except the O'bahn busway), tram, train lines with small stop spacing between stations (when in motion) cannot compete against cars for an equivalent door to door trip. Adelaide's public transport is solely designed as a shuttle between the suburbs to Adelaide CBD for very few rich inner city workers. A full hub and spoke PT network is extremely unsustainable, highly subsided per passenger, wastes energy per vehicle, unequitable and puts the majority of the population at an extreme disadvantage. For a city like Adelaide with 1.3 million people, this is extremely embarrassing that we're tolerating with third world public transport.
As someone who lives in regional Australia and now (when not in lockdown of course) travels to Sydney via the XPT on a regular basis. The thought that the already limited service is looking like it will be reduced even more is quite frightening. The XPT has problems. Its slow, old, uncomfortable and bumpy but for me it's a lifeline to the city that I otherwise wouldn't have and I am not the only one in this situation.
going back to QLDs tilt train being one of th best long distance trains in Australia, The Australian rail speed record is presently held by Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train, which achieved 210km/h during a test run on 23 May 1999 and with a current top speed of 170 km/h it is apparently the fastest narrow gauge train in the world
It is infrequent and speed in service is barely faster than the XPT.
Great informative video on your part. When you look at railways in Europe etc. Australian rail is a joke
Freight income generated should be offset to run frequent regional passenger services. Trouble is its a melting pot of different track gauges , State and private operators and unless its profitable coupled with political influence nothing is going to change in the short term . Credit is due to Vic rail with the return and improved Regional Services. Queensland where I live also has good but infrequent services.
@@johnsergei exactly
What's good about Narrow guage?
And not everybody wants high speed trains.
I just want a network that has great coverage, that makes Victoria's regional network the best.
@lwf51 Narrow gauge isn't sought after by passengers or transport operators.
The only reason QLD would've chosen Narrow Gauge in the first place is they couldn't fund standard or broad gauge systems.
I never realised that the rest of states had such crap regional rail. Growing up in regional Queensland, I just assumed the tilt train was the standard for the whole country (ie, decently fast when it's possible, but mostly slowed down by track conditions, circuitous routes and slower freight trains).
NSW regional rail is very well operated, well serviced and affordable. The only issue is distance. For example; Moore to Sydney is seven hours via rail and fifty minutes in the air. Reducing the number of stops would reduce the travel time however the remaining issue is a reduction in the number of stops means a reduction in the number of passengers.
@@jackchapo2011 In Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan, there are "local" trains and "fast" trains. This helps solve a lot of the passengers vs time issue.
@@AUniqueHandleName444 So what is your suggestion where some potential lines cannot even fill a twice daily bus service?
@@jackchapo2011 Expanding sleepers rather than doing away with them would be a good move here. Perfect case in point would be the Broken Hill Xplorer. Beyond Dubbo no one really wants to ride it to Sydney as it's frankly an ordeal. Running it as a decent sleeper service would make it a much more time saving and tolerable journey. The timings of the Sydney-Brisbane XPT could also use revising to make it more pax friendly, with the possibly of diving the train at Casino, with one section to Brisbane and the other to Lismore and Byron Bay. Sleepers get around a *lot* of the problem of a lot of Australian track wandering all over the place and having crazy tight curves and inclines - people don't care too much about journey time if they're going to be asleep anyway.
Keep them if they carry freight otherwise... pull them up and recycle.
i once got the train between Sydney & Melbourne, and i was so excited when i saw it was one of our (UK) intercity 125 high speed style trains. i thought to my self ''sweet,! this isn't going to take too long''. Boy was i wrong. i could of got there faster walking backwards with a sprained ankle..................
A few years ago I was on the Sydney to Casino XPT and there were two British tourists sitting in front of me and one of them said "We should have booked on a faster service", I tapped him on the shoulder and said "This is the fast service"
Why didn't you then? Typical whinging pommy.
Why not consider taking a plane next time on the third busiest air route in the world. It is popular for a reason. I think you can figure out why now. And don’t think an intercity125 would rectify that situation. It would still take about four times as long at max speed, even with non-existent perfect infrastructure and no stops. I hate to think what the actual time would be. Many hours.
@@Nemesisrooster thks. I needed a good laugh 😂
@@maxtivey32 i think you mean a typically shit train.
Sadly I cannot see many lines in S.A ever being returned to any kind of usable state ever again, I am from the Mallee originally and since the line was decommissioned a few years back, keep in mind it is not officially closed! it has been neglected to all hell, not maintained in any way shape or form and already basically has trees growing through it in places. Hilariously just over the Victorian border in Murrayville the Victorian government actually standardised the track all the way there so now there is this 30 odd km stretch of od redundant broad guage track between there and Pinaroo just wasting away and stupidly it realistically is the only real remaining rail link between the states if something happened to the line down at Bordertown!
ha yes very true, wish that one day we could get a rail line to much of SA's regions again, Australian National and it's successors have been a disaster for South Australia. However even a few hundred million could bring rail services back to communities along modern main line tracks
Yes. Why the hell does SA have no sense for Railways? The people running SA over the past 40-50 years have really stuffed things up. I am a Melburnian but I'm presently living in Adelaide. There should be lines to Clare, Renmark, Mt Gambier, Victor Harbor (regular service), Whyalla, Wallaroo and Angaston. And the Adelaide Metro network is a bloody disgrace. Mt Barker, Greenwith, Aberfoyle Park and Virginia should all have metro train services. And the Adelaide station is a disgrace, it resembles a New York subway, dark, gloomy and it stinks of urine. Who is going to get things done? They need to go to Melbourne and Perth and take inspiration from their networks.
@@jacintaedwards1123 unfortunately the current party is the conservative LNP and didn’t see much use for The Overland which is now funded by the Labor Vic govt. Don’t know how long that will last, it was given a reprieve in March for another 3 years.
@@jacintaedwards1123 id like to see the Adelaide to peterborough via terowie line back to life.
The section to hallet only stopped in about 2009.
@@darylcheshire1618 yep all the liberal leader marshall wants is a 650million stadium....all the while he's axing funding and staff in health sector...Not to mention the previously most popular supercars race the Adelaide 500.
A lot of valid points there, the main reason rail travel has gone to hell in a hand-basket though is the fact that most of these lines were built well over a century ago and have had little more than basic maintenance ever since. With few exceptions the rail corridors are the same as they were built in the 1800's with Victorian era engineering and steam locomotives and their limitations in mind, the best way to fix the passenger rail system (especially in NSW) would be to completely rebuild the rail corridor network from scratch cutting all of the antiquated meandering that slows train speeds to a crawl even on the main line between Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne. Neither State nor Federal Government wants to invest billions into it if it's not hauling freight around rather thasn passengers and as such high speed rail between the capitol will continue to be nothing more than a desperate last ditch election promise for the next 3 decades as well.
When was HSR an election promise from either major party? The only politician from the coalition who wanted HSR is now dead. The late Tim Fischer from the Nationals seriously wanted it and you would think his national colleagues would have backed him on that but they are mostly sleazebags who have vested interests in what they can gain financially from regional Australia, not what they can give to regional Australia.
Robert long ago during the Commune in Poland, there was a train called "Butcher". The train was the same as the name. But now the railway has been revived and the current trains do not resemble those under communism. New railway lines are built and the old ones are being revitalized. After having invested in the new infrastructure, more passengers travel, and the railroads make a living. But first it is necessary to test and then take out the profits.
Robert dawno temu za Komuny w Polsce jeździł pociąg który nazywano "Rzeźnik". Pociąg był taki sam jak nazwa. Ale teraz zaiwestowano w kolej i w niczym obecne pociągi nie przypominają tamte za komunizmu. Buduje się nowe linie kolejowe a stare poddaje się rewitalizacji. Po zaiwestowaniu w nową infrastrukturę jeździ więcej pasażerów i kolej zarabia na siebie. Ale najpierw trzeba koniecznie zaiwestować a potem wyjmować zyski.
@@1965Tofik railways aren't profitable. myslisz ze zarabiaja na kolejach w polsce?
@@ronylouis0 Transport towarowy (cargo) kolejowy zawsze był opłacalny. Gorzej było z transportem osobowym. W 2001 roku podzielono kolej na osobną kolej towarową i osobową. W tej chwili po zainwestowaniu w nowe lokomotywy, wagony oraz dworce a nawet małe stacje kolejowe kolej zarabia na siebie. Poza tym koleje w Europie w razie konieczności są dofinansowane z funduszy Unii Europejskiej. Co roku w Berlinie organizowane są Targi Kolejowe na których pokazywane są nowe lokomotywy wagony i inne rozwiązania techniczne. Pokazywane są nawet nowe tramwaje (transport miejski) oraz nowe rodzaje napędu (wodorowe). Robert najlepiej jak sam przyjedziesz do Polski i Europy, musisz to sam zobaczyć.
Rail freight has always been profitable. It was worse with passenger transport. In 2001, the railroad was divided into separate freight and passenger railways. At the moment, after investing in new locomotives, wagons and stations and even small railway stations, the railway is making money. In addition, railways in Europe are co-financed from European Union funds when necessary. Every year in Berlin, the Railway Fair is organized at which new locomotives, wagons and other technical solutions are shown. Even new trams (city transport) and new types of propulsion (hydrogen) are shown. Robert, it is best to come to Poland and Europe yourself, you have to see it for yourself.
www.rynek-kolejowy.pl/
@@1965Tofik dziękuję za informację
Yep, a good video . In my state, NSW, regional govt rail freight and passenger services were protected by govt legislation until 1970s/80s. This was to mitigate the “stranded asset” problem which arose when buses and trucks took the traffic. This didn’t account for private car usage which killed off discretionary, non commuter passenger traffic.Revenue then didn’t cover operating costs, let alone repayments of state debt taken out to build the line/s. Despite the”protection” ,traffic fell hugely.
When the protection was removed, regional rail was left with bulk minerals , seasonal grain haulage and a relatively slight share of container and steel products freight. The tracks had never been installed or maintained to international passenger standards . They became almost exclusively freight corridors and in many instances maintenance priorities changed. As a result , regional NSW ( read Australian for this purpose, except for Vic. In recent years!) rail services mirror or are worse than their US counterparts in general crappiness. While Amtrak has a national remit it operates its trains on private operator per ways. They often give priority to freight. An example is the line between Las Vegas and LA. The daily Amtrak service can be delayed by 5 or 6 hours until it’s given a “track window”.
We’re starting to address this in NSW with orders for new passenger rolling stock. The track needs to be brought up to good operational standards for rolling 90- 110k/hr averages. An elapsed journey time say of 4 hrs Adelaide to Mount Gambier or 3hrs Melb- Albury or Syd - Canberra would probably attract sufficient patronage to justify track and rolling stock upgrades.
Well, they don't even run passenger trains between Vegas and LA anymore and that whole "freight gets priority over passenger" thing is a myth. Amtrak almost always gets ran as the hottest train on the Railroad, the problem is moving all of those long and slow freight trains out of the way.
Seems to be a daily midnight special per Amtrak website. www.amtrak.com/tickets/schedule-results.html. The comments about delays were based on what I’d read of other passengers accounts.
@@michlo3393 but it's not a myth - compare the delays in the Empire Builder now to 20 years ago (before all of those trains with the oil sand crude were blocking that line so often); it's shocking.
@@chouseification No the part about freight ha ing priority is the myth. The rest is all congestion and limited siding space. When Amtrak is the only thing for 200 miles in each direction that fits in the siding, then you can see where the problem compounds itself in a never ending cycle.
Trains are too slow to compete with cars sorry but go high speed or give up.
Australian National sounds alot like the United State's Conrail (except passenger based of course). Great video btw!
Sounds like old Conrail when they operated passenger rail as well.
Somewhat, AN was an attempt to amalgamate all state systems into one national system, but state government jealously hang onto their systems. The only systems that joined the new entity was Commonwealth Railways, South Australian Railways (except Adelaide's suburban network) and Tasrail.
They stole the motto from Cunard Line (cruise ship company)
Perth and Darwin are too isolated to have good intercity service and to an extent Adelaide. The Rest of the big cities in Australia have no excuse for horrid passenger trains
Australian National was Whitlam's attempt to create a national system that ran everything. The only states that handed there system's over to the Federal Government were South Australia and Tasmania, both the most indebted and ran down of all the state systems with Hilariously enough, The Profitable and comparatively stable Commonwealth Railways system (owned by the federal government). It was not really like conrail at all.
Kalgoorlie to Perth is actually mostly standard gauge and has been for the last 50 years. From Kalgoorlie until Northam it's standard gauge, then from there to East Perth it's a dual-gauge track.
With the exception of the Perth-Kalgoorlie link, the majority of rail system in W.A.'s south is narrow gauge.
For Your Information, up to Federation, the break of gauge on the Victorian New South Wales was at Wodonga where you also had to go through customs the customs house was located on the platform..
You have to think about what "need" means. If airlines can fly between the major capitals and make a profit, is there a "need" for the government to pay huge subsidies so people could choose to go by train if they wanted to? But having said that, there are some journeys where rail should be able to compete with flying. For example, if you could get from Sydney to Canberra in 2 hours, many would choose to take the train, as the door to door time would be the same or faster. And the problem is that the existing line was built for the steam age. There are so many tight curves it is impossible to maintain the 160 km/h average speed which would be needed. There needs to be some serious investment in the track. High speed rail would be nice, but rather than paying for yet another study, just bringing the existing track up to a reasonable standard would make rail travel a reasonable alternative on some routes.
The other benefit of HSR is that someone, for example in regional N.S.W might be able to commute to Sydney for work and go back home to let's say Goulburn in the afternoon. No need to uproot, no need for Sydney to expand into an even bigger sprawl than it is already.
It can happen in Melbourne also. People from Wangaratta, or even Albury-Wodonga could get down to Melbourne in 90 minutes, have their brekky on the train, read their virtual newspaper and get to work refreshed. By that time it might be a four day working week anyhow so it would be perfect for a lot of people. All of this can't be done by flying because no way would that plane from Sydney to Melbourne make 5 stops at Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Albury-Wodonga, Wangaratta, Broadmeadows (well, Broady is close to Tulla I guess).
While generally I agree, the missing piece here is probably climate change. Unless we can work out how to get air travel carbon neutral (something that might be many decades away), the best alternative we have right now is high speed rail hooked up to renewable energy.
Definitely agree with your point that we could make big progress by straightening the alignments. Right now rail is the slowest way to get from Sydney to Canberra - slower than car travel, and slower than air travel, even when factoring in check in times and time spent waitint at the airport. That's an obvious thing that needs changing.
@@lachd2261 A train that could run to Canberra in two hours will have significantly lower emissions per passenger.km than flying. But unless the line is electrified - and current traffic would not justify that, these will be diesel trains for some time to come.
@@frankszanto Indeed. Quick question though, and correct me if I'm wrong - even a diesel locomotive, DMU or Bi-mode train will use less emissions than a Bombardier Q400/737 on that route?
@@lachd2261 That is a really difficult question to answer without doing extensive calculations. The fuel consumption for different trains running on the same route may vary by more than 50%. And then, are we talking the existing route, or a new improved route with less curves, which would be shorter. I recently did some simulations for diesel trains vs diesel hybrids (with batteries) on the existing track, giving 4.9 L/pass for the diesel, and 3.4 L/pass for the hybrid, for the 640 km round trip. Note that consumption is less on the return which is downhill. For the hybrid, it is 2.2 L/pass on the outward leg, and
Really interesting details of where we are at with passenger rail and how we got here! Thank for the effort to put this together!
Great video! Thanks for putting in the effort to research everything!
Flat out your best made video yet, it's really high quality.
thanks mate :)
In the case of regional NSW, whilst it is sad to see the once huge rail network mostly closed down, it just doesn't make sense to have empty trains being driven all over the state. This is why the lines closed. Only the driver and conductor were on board most of them.
I do not believe we should have trains for the sake of trains, but trains to sensible population centres where rail lines already exist, in the case of NSW this isn't too many new destinations, but overall an improvement to train speeds and frequencies to make the services more useable for everyone, trains must be flexible to build a reliable and solid ridership base
But it leaves one option for regional passengers to get to the city, drive to the city. I know some lines are not high patronage networks but they are useful. For me it has allowed me to see my regional gf every week. As instead of being in traffic and at red lights for 1 hour and a half i can hop on the regional train on the urban fringe and be there in 30 minutes. Plus now they introduced a bus line in the town so i technically could get to her house without using a car at all, all in a town of ~10,000.
@@CrabbedSun10, your experience is an example of how a properly run transportation system should work. Different forms of transportation being used at different times in, any respective journey. A lot of the problems in transportation are caused by the failure of recognizing what is really needed to properly serve the public. This leads to a system that is dysfunctional, and therefore inefficient.
Put simply cars win due to their vast number, deferring road costs over many journeys and convenience to users.
As do aircraft as you only need an airport each end, no infrastructure in between.
Even the most equivalent route in Europe to Sydney to Melbourne (both in terms of distance and being financial capitals) - London to Frankfurt, there is no direct service, and almost everyone flies.
Beijing to Shanghai (a bit further but quicker trains) only has a handful, and China's airlines really suck with delays.
Sydney to Melbourne might work if there were five 500k+ cities in between, but even Canberra doesn't reach this level.
A 20k town 100km from anything else does not support a railway service.
We simply don't have the inland population to support much better.
The few exceptions being medium haul rail where the Wollongong, Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney corridoor might support better and faster services - but equally passengers would need to pay more than they do today (compare the cost of a similar distance Newcastle-Sydney train in the UK)
I've often wondered if it would have been better if there was a Sydney-Melbourne train route that passed through Canberra, the Snowy Mountains and the Victorian Alps. Or if the Sydney-Broken Hill Xplorer continued all the way to Adelaide.
The former would get a lot of tourist patronage. The latter would at least serve large population centres (by Australian standards) at both ends.
A bit too sensible and detailed for the free lunch views and comments here.
It’s unfortunate as well because DB had been planning to run ICE services through the Chunnel into the UK (I think late 2000s early 2010s), but with the British government being the British government, they axed the program on account of not wanting competition for their precious Eurostar, even though tbh Eurostar isn’t the best and almost always seems to get delayed.
I’ve heard of some schemes to get this plan revived, or to at least have Eurostar reach Germany, but I’m not sure any major progress has been made, especially with Brexit.
Back in June I went to the Flinders ranges for a week it was so sad seeing the narrow gauge rail beyond Quorn it got more and more dilapidated the further from Quorn you got I wish we could revive all of our historic rail services or at least maintain them for time being
FANTASTIC VIDEO!
Another really stupid thing about Regional Rail: they open the wrong stations.
A new intercity/regional service called the Bathurst Bullet started up a while back, and between Lithgow and Bathurst it stops at Rydal and Tarana. Big mistake.
Sure, those teeny villages DO deserve their rail service, but that's saying that the massive suburb sized towns along the way don't deserve them. You have Kelso, Raglan, Wallerawang and Bownfels, all of those places had train stations (3 of them are still just abandoned), and populations that are 10 times that of Rydal and Tarana. This is just because Gladys BereDICKlian and Bruz Barilaro don't give one shit about Regional transport, and will only give it to the towns that they forgot to close.
We live in a state where we have NO interstate service to SA, but we have stations like Darnick which are LITERALLY IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.
Very well done and informative buddy. Traveling overseas and seeing the rail networks elsewhere really is hard to accept.
Our land mass and lack of population away from the coasts is our biggest challenge. So many bridges to be built and that creates so much more extra costs. IMO
Trains suck here in Canada too. I went to Australia in May 1987 & travelled all over the country using a 1 month rail pass. I only had to pay $33/night for roomette on Indian-Pacific,Overlander,The Queenslander,etc. There was a 1/week train 'The Alice" that went Sydney-Alice Springs that I booked the Deluxe compartment. I got all the timetables sent to me here in Vancouver & had a travel agent book my trains nearly a year ahead . I have been on 'The Canadian' transcontinental train 50x (25x both ways) since 1964. It takes 84 hrs to cross Canada now.
Unfortunately it's 2022 not 1987, & many of those services have been privatised to become tourist-trains at posh tourist prices. People prefer to fly than to spend hours and hours on a train crossing endless farmland & outback.
Excellent video with an extremely important message about transportation in our country’s future! Well done!
Serviceton was named after a Victorian governor
The ticket from Sydney to Perth was 3 foot long and was perforated, it got shorter as you travelled. The Sulphide Street Station is a museum and has a ticket.
I’d like to see the Perth Sydney and Darwin services run with sitting cars.
During this supposed rail renaisance it was dissappointing to see the Newcasle line be converted to a tram line, I suspected that vested interests wanted to use the foreshore.
You suspect correctly (Newcastle)
As someone not from North north Sydney I hated that Light rail.
Who thought it was a good idea?
Great video, probably your best to date, really enjoyed. Now I'm going to take some of these ideas and put them in my nationalised NIMBY Rails company.
glad you liked it 😁
I'm sure that Australia sure lacks of an Amtrak-style passenger service.
@@AussieWirraway I hope there will be HSR In-between Sydney and Melbourne via Canberra and some other cities. Also and Extension to Brisbane and Gold Coast would be good. Perhaps to Adelaide. If HSR can’t be done to Adelaide or Gold Coast/Brisbane then opt for good intercity trains. Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne HSR is something that must eventually happen.
Nice video brother. I appreciate the time and research you put in here.
Interesting video and indeed a shame. In Canada, while Via Rail is still public (Crown Corporation), it has been subjected to continual service cuts over the past 40 years, to the point that many routes only have service a few days a week, and one of our larger cities, Calgary, has not had any rail service for 30 years. Most of the track (over 80%) is owned by CN, which was privatized in the 1990s, and prioritizes freight service, often leading to lengthy passenger delays for Via. Utterly embarrassing.
As a more environmentally friendly travel mode and a public service for connecting cities and smaller towns, I agree that passenger rail must be run publicly and not for profit.
Give up build maglev for passenger rail and automate them
Then you better not complain about mismanagement, service cuts and underfunding.
It is abundantly clear how much time and effort you put into this video, you should be very proud of yourself. It’s important for us to have these discussions as transport is the bedrock of any nation. You did a great job with the script, background clips and overall content of the video. The only thing that would help you for your next videos is just remember to keep the volume of your voice the same as any music you use, or any other audio in the video, otherwise the volume will jump dramatically for some people who watch this on TV’s with powerful sound systems. Anyway - be proud of yourself!
Keep going. A good and informative effort!
Thanks for using my Tilt Train Video and crediting me in the corner, much appreciated 😊
Great video mate, probably your best to date!
Minus the gauge nonsense, this story sounds very similar to regional rail here in New Zealand. We used to have an extensive network and now we literally only have three tourist services and two intercity services in the North Island, one of which launched this year! All of these services have miserable speeds and frequency because our national operator is so completely preoccupied with operating costs, subsidies and profit, instead of just providing a public good
Only on the North Island? What about Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunedin anc Invercargill? I thought there was a service there?
@@jacintaedwards1123 there is an expensive tourist service from Picton to Christchurch but nothing south. No proper regional services
@@Theincredibledrummer And unlike almost every airline you cannot select your seats online. Seats are allocated on the day at the railway station. Welcome to 1950!!
@@Theincredibledrummer Trans-Alpine Express?
Bravo on a great video.
Train services are essential for rural communities and evidence of that is the stagnant state of rural towns and cities in South Australia since the loss of the passenger rail.
Once again, well done on a great video!
I don't know a single thing about trains but I love how passionate you and your viewers are about this :) interesting stuff
Really good video 👏🏻 I can tell you spent a lot of time on this edit, and it paid off 💪🏻
This is an incredible video. Keep it up man!
There has been no political will to improve regional train travel, from both sides, and the public don't seem to have an appetite to see it improve either. As for a high speed rail network between Sydney and Melbourne, forget it. It might happen 50-60 years from now but that's a 50/50 chance.
Congratulations to Japan for coming up to their 60th anniversary of their high speed Shinkansen train. Congratulations to the many Australian transport authorities and governments (state and federal) for having a service from Melbourne to Albury-Wodonga that is slower than it was 60 years ago.
Amazingly the XPT ran faster in the 80s than today, but due to aging track & trains... speeds have been reduced & journey times increased.
Then forget trains then.
Such an interresting video. I loved it. I really appreciate all the effort you put into it. I also hope, that Australian Rail can return to its glory, and be the backbone of a greener Australia.
Feels great to have a channel like this about our often forgotten country and its infrastructure, extremely excited to see more from you.
Also a small corretion in The Gauge Problem, WA's Iron Ore railways in the pilbara we're built to standard gauge.
This video straight up competes and is better than other notable transport youtubers.
Already rewatched several times
Another example of a semi-decent line is the Hunter Line from Scone to Newcastle on the NSW Intercity Network - the only caveat is it only runs twice a day (in each direction) on weekends, which is a massive flaw.
By the way, Tasmania uses Narrow Gauge. Simple reason was that it was easier to go around tight curves and was cheaper to operate. Tasmania also had passenger rail until the late 1970's, but lack of use and the rise of cheap bus transport led to the complete rail line being freight only.
There is a push on getting the disused Hobart Northern Suburb rail corridor (which closed in the early 2010's) as passenger rail service, it is always thrown into the "too hard basket" and left as a pipedream for Tasmanian rail enthusiasts.
Wait until the energy shortage hits home. Majority of these systems will become popular very quickly and upgraded.
I'm glad I found an Australian AdamSomething.
very informative vid , mate!
Looking at the Indian Pacific made my blood boil when i was backpacking. I had to hitchhike to Sydney from Adelaide because there was no reasonable alternative transport.
Why would anyone want to be in adelaide or sydney? They are both certified shitholes!
@@jacintaedwards1123 nope Adelaide isnt 😂
L.O.L. Should have done your homework. You do realise, this train is privately owned right ? The company that onws the rolling stock, (coaches) must hire the services of a company that hires out their Loco's and Drivers to pull them around, then BOTH the above, must pay fees to use the track. Isn't PRIVATISATION wonderful ? L.O.L. NOT !
AW: "Airline deregulation isn't of itself a bad thing...."
Also AW: *Photo of Ansett*
Nice!
"You can chance it with Ansett or fly TAA" (perhaps not so today)
Here's some history about Ansett Australia.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansett_Australia
simpleflying.com/ansett-australia-history/amp/
funnily enough I flew Ansett in 1989 for a school trip to Melbourne when the rest of my class went on the Overland.The Horror Stories they mentioned to me are correct,not much has changed in the last 33 years sadly.You can get on Virgin full adult fare if booked in advance for not much more and at the Adelaide end(I am in the Eastern Suburbs where there is a Direct Airport Bus to the Airport J1 OR J2 or you these days called Ryder for a Taxi and for Melbourne end either Ryder or getting a Shuttle Bus gets you where you need to be for the hotel)
Great and informative video. Hope I'll make it down to Australia one day and hopefully by that time there will be a better service between Sydney and Melbourne.
MOST TOWNs that have lost their rail service have died
No passenger railway system can make profits.
The main source of revenue is from freight.
The only way for passenger railway to make profits is if the stations are developed as commercial spaces for revenue generation.
Parking plazas, restaurants, offices, car rental spaces etc. Can generate revenue for the railway which helps with the costs.
Certain sections of railway can even be developed as heritage railway where the train journey is the attraction
This is an amazing and informative video. You did a wonderful job producing this. I find it mind blowing that there is no way to travel between Adelaide and Perth that is affordable. For those of us who don't fly or drive, there is no alternative as the coach service across the Nullarbor was withdrawn many years ago.
Well between there is basically nobody living there
@@qjtvaddict I understand that you think that way but there are many homesteads and indigenous settlement which are not seen from the train and actually relied on the IP and The Trans Australian for their supplies. It is true that the majority of people do not leave the train at these remote locations but many would use the train if not for the horrendous prices. Being able to choose a form of transport that is suitable for those who don't fly or drive is a right of the citizens of this country and this right has been removed for those who find rail travel their only option.
@@aussiejohn5835 You can lay the reason for this, directly at the feet of privatisation. You do realise, that these days many passenger AND freight trains are hauled by other companies, who own the locos and charge a fee for the haulage of these trains ? They then must also pay a fee for the use of the rails/infrastructure, the owners of the rolling stock, passenger or freight, are also required to pay fees for the use of. So when all's said and done, everyone wants a profit, maybe you can understand why rail travel is so expensive. In the "OLD" days, the whole rail system was owned by the State/taxpayer who had responsability to provide service to the taxpayer. Unfortunately, that's all gone now and profit rules. Note, the countries that have excellent passenger trains, which are all built operated and owned by their various Governments. Big difference.
@@itchyvet I agree with everything you said. I do think that the Adelaide/Perth corridor should have a train or coach service that is funded by the Federal Government as an alternative to the very expensive option currently available. The Red Class service should be reinstated on IP for those who don't want all the expensive trimmings.
While England piddles about with HS2, a high speed line that a small country doesn't need, Australia hasn't bothered yet would make more sense there.
The are two factors that you neglected to cover. Firstly, in once sense you are correct about the population of Australia being sufficient for faster trains, however this not always the case. Port Macquarie was only about 20000 people, even into the 1980s and didn't even have a rail connection. Today it is over 60000 and people need to travel to Wauchope to catch the train. The trouble is that apart from Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the next largest city is Maitland (80000), Wagga Wagga (60000) and Tamworth (55000). Many of the communities between them are much smaller (less than 20000). Railways in Europe travel through many more larger towns than what we do, E.G west of Dubbo, the only communities are Nyngan, Cobar and Bourke Menindee etc. These towns separated by vast distances of outback..Another factor is when the main lines were duplicated in the 1900s, the NSW Railways attempted to ease many of the heavy grades by constructing a series of curves to reduce grades. This eased the curves but the decision resulted in travel times being increased. An example is the Main South where the distance from Sydney to Albury was 387 miles (pre-duplication) 400 miles after duplication. But on the whole you have created an excellent presentation and you have highlighted some fundamental issues. The obviously is the lack of service by the Indian Pacific and Ghan. Why not have a daily service to Perth? Why doesn't Toowoomba ( a city of over 100 000 people) have a regular train service? Thanks for your effort, I appreciate it.
Unfortunately the line between Toowoomba and Rosewood is as twisted as a piece of wet spaghetti thrown on a wall. It takes HOURS to travel a short distance. Same story in NSW between Armidale and Tamworth, magnificent scenery but SO SLOW!
@@theelliottline3637 There is 600m of elevation differrence between Rosewood and Toowoomba so that is never going to be a fast service. It is train not a roller coaster.
@@SurmaSampo In any country but Australia, cuttings and tunnels would have cut the lime shorter and smoother.
@@itchyvet Got any proof to back that up? Can you point to a comparable line?
Aussie Wirraway WOW! Best ultimate, detailed, researched, documented, accurate, referenced with graphics, visual archives collections. I must add best TH-cam I have ever seen in regards to Australian travel rail and air and basic sea travel forms. Tasmania a bit quiet. Be proud as you have demonstrated rare individual skills! Thanks and happy you had fun presenting this! I can't challenge you for any detailed accuracy as it is true.
You are a clone of me! I have observed and collected and read the exact stuff as well!
I am old school 1960's to today 2021 trains and planes Australian transport seen it all as well!
Who are you?
You have demonstrated a great career for yourself.
Recognised a lot of visual locations yay!
From me South Australian...SAR, CR, ANR...Bluebirds at Belair railway station!
Regards,
Ansett 727.
thank you much for your incredibly kind feedback :)
@@AussieWirraway not to worry you are an incredibly rare individual. Uni level presentation with 4000 word script with TH-cam technology access. I never had this in my Uni graduate days decades ago!
Keep up with good work!
Ansett 727:)!
@@ansett7272, This has to one of the best videos I have ever come acrossed on TH-cam, in regards to history of Australia's passenger trains. The catching graphics with archived pictures and films make this a must watch video.
@@michaeleverett1479 Yes it is very accurate.
Proud of presentation.
Ansett 727.
Also Vline is great and getting better loads of people who live out of Melbourne I know can get to work just as quickly Via Vline as people driving in from the outer suburbs. As a teenager Vlines gave me a lot of freedom that many could only dream of. At 17 I took a Vline train and bus to Torquay for the school holidays with a friend who was the same age.
When doing your gauge video. Please note that the first railway in Australia was not in Melbourne but Newcastle. Australian agricutural company A pit coal mine railway built in 1831 (4 years before Melbourne existed) to standard gauge using cast iron fishbelly rail. Maybe if some idiots in the NSW Government had noted this before the first agreement to standardise on BG by the states then maybe we might all have standard gauge instead of the 3 different rail gauges we have.
It’s funny how he doesn’t heart this comment 🤔 kinda suspect
Personally I don't think interstate long distance train travel has any demand except for the tourists trains. However here in WA I think we have a strong case to upgrade and lengthen the line from Perth to Bunbury and even beyond. The current Bunbury service is out of action for months and really needs a line upgrade to carry faster trains
Unless they are high speed they will never get the demand to break even let alone profit
@@qjtvaddict The service to Bunbury is operated by TRANSWA, a Government owned, and operated entitity, providing a service for the taxpayer. The line USED to go as far south as AUGUSTA in the old days, Many sections are still in existence but badly neglected. There may be HOPE, that eventually the Metro Electrification system MAY be extended to Bunbury, IF there's a demand for it. Going by the way suburbia is creeping down the coast that way, it shouldn't be too far off. Also the situation these days of the demise of the combustion engine may well accelerate this as well.
"About time somebody else with an under-utilized passenger rail system gets chastised on the internet. Don't forget Canada while you're at it."
- The United States of America
In Canada more than half the population lives in one small region Quebec City to Toronto ect
@@qjtvaddict to which some smug European would mention their tiny little country that's the size of your backyard and how you're just making poor excuses while failing to understand the unique and different circumstances of your country.
No way would I ever claim Australia's rail system is "under utilised". Freight is making billions out of the system these days. There's no money in passengers, so why even pretend there's a need there ? I've said it a million times, the public has got no one to blame, but themselves. If they don't patronise the services provided, they WILL BE CUT. That's precisely what's happened over the years.
It is interesting that all the settler colonies have terrible intercity rail. (Australia, US, Canada, NZ)
South Australia was predominantly narrow gauge, Adelaide to Terowie was broad gauge, from Hamley Bridge to Gladstone and Hamley to Moonta via Balaklava, Port Wakefield and Kadina, as well as Kadina to Brinkworth, were all narrow gauge. They were converted in the 1920s, my grandfather was Ganger with SAR worked on gauge conversion. The line from Wolseley to Mount Gambier, and branch at Naracoorte and Mount Gambier Junction, were narrow gauge as well, being gauge converted in 1950s. So, taking in lines on West coast and ones I've mentioned, there was more narrow gauge originally in South Australia. The last one converted was the narrow gauge from Port Pirie to Broken Hill, which was converted to standard gauge in 1970.
NSW trains to Regional DO NOT just do once a week... Might want to research a little more. Waiting for your response on this.
The Broken Hill and Griffith trains only run once per week...
@@AussieWirraway that is not correct. Do your research mate.
@@jackchapo2011 transportnsw.info/plan/places-to-visit/broken-hill this very clearly says the broken hill train operates once a week
@@AussieWirraway Go online and try to book it.
With some very rare exceptions, roads aren't required to turn a profit. So I'm not sure why railway lines were expected to turn a profit, when an increase in rail service means a reduction in road maintenance costs.
Rail is also, (or was not in my day) subsidised like road transport is. Rail was required to pay it's own way.
I have travelled and opened in many countries, I will say that melbourne and victorian rail gas improved out of sight and continuing to improve, well done
A lot of towns above armidale lost rail access around the 2000s when the line above armidale was abandoned. It’s quite sad for those communities that were already struggling with poor highway conditions from heavy vehicles
The fact that they now wanna convert it into a cycleway is so sad.
Bring back the Northern Tablelands line, Glen Innes and Tenterfield deserve a rail link. You can see the effects in Armidale itself. as soon as you reach the railway station, there are abandoned carriages and trains, and just makes that entire part of town undesirable.
Bravo! Could not agree more about the terrible state of much of Australia’s regional and interstate rail travel. I agree too that a regular reliable rail service connecting regional town and cities to the capital is a public good and the lack of these must in no small part be a reason for the demise of many regional centres. With carbon neutral travel being increasing a requirement railways are an obvious part of that mix but with the messy mix of state/federal/corporate ownership that situation is unlikely to change. You only need to look at the mess that is the Murray Darling basin to see what a mess we can make of things. Thank you so much for your efforts in explaining so clearly the origin of this crazy problem. I look forward to enjoying future videos. Cheers mate.
beautiful video ❤️❤️
I rode the XPT in 2018. The trip from Sydney to Canberra was smooth, but the trip from Yass Junction to Melbourne was a massive shaky mess! You couldn't risk resting your head on the window without the risk of getting it bashed in!
This is caused by The contractor responsible for a section of rail infrastructure. When the Department of Railways handled there own maintenance, we never had this problem. Privatisation of infrastructure has lowered the
quality.
Seeing the label on part 2 😂😂😂
Great video :)
Here in Melbourne, we can't build a dedicated track into the city for long haul services, but we spent 10s of billions building freeway bypasses on the same path. Fuel taxes will never pay the cost of those freeway projects and barely cover the yearly maintenance costs on the road surface.
Love your content
From 12:24 to 14:00. Is that modded Cities Skylines footage?
Great video BTW, was entertained.
Trains are NOT NEEDED here due to very long distance between big cities. To get from Sydney to Adelaide takes 1.5h on plane or 24h by train - the choice is obvious. Even fast speed train will run 6-10h - the full day! - and cost much more than $100 plane ticket. I love my time and money much more than trains. And even if I need to carry something more than hand luggage I take a car and get to Adelaide in 24h, $200 for fuel, from door to door.
So this is the main reason, not just break of gauge etc, which was long ago. In 80th it was possible to travel nonstop but all railways continued to die. Planes became cheap, cars became common... and no one wanted to spend his time and money travelling by train.
True about Trains and Buses.I saw the Overland passing through the Unley Area about ten minutes after it left Keswick yesterday morning so 7:05am due to arrive in Melbourne 6:50pm that night.one can understand if they live in rural victoria using that service but between the main cities no thanks.Using Virgin Australia as a guide one can get the 11:40am flight ADL/MEL arrives 1:30pm at the other end then can book a Rydo or just get in a regular taxi at the Airport to their hotel(for tourists that is)or even one of the limo companies if the budget permits.by the time one is in the city it's between 3pm and 4pm.that's more than enough time to squeeze in a gym session in a hotel fitness facility or anytime fitness(if one has such a membership). By the time the train gets into Southern Cross Station You have had a few hours to yourself before dinner.
In September 2020, I went to Mount Gambier for four days. I really wanted in spirit to go by train but the bus was taken instead. The return trip back to Adelaide was done by the bus coastal route which has a meal break stop at Kingston SE. Just a short walk from this point is the Big Lobster which in one of about 60 big things to see in Australia. Trip took about 7 hours.
Superb video, rather enjoyed it. I did notice something interesting in the Terowie photo you used, 522 appears to be hauling Victorian carriages. Maybe an ARHS tour?
You said this is your best video ever, I'd agree!!! 😁
I think it's a bit much to criticise the lack of cheap trains from Darwin and Perth to Adelaide.
If it's a multi day journey, you're having to pay an army staff to work back to back shifts to operate each trip.
The reality is, even if those lines were full 300km/h high speed rail, it would still be a 9 hour journey from Adelaide to Perth and an immense amount of track to build across the desert.
Meanwhile flying is under 3 hours, and the price is lower because you only need 3 hours of labour.
I think rail is best suited to journeys under about 900km.
So we can definitely have things like a subsidised regular service from Pt Augusta/Port Pirie to Adelaide, but one all the way to Darwin is too far and too expensive to run.
I think moving foward, the Victorian approach is best with decent regional trains. We should also at least start a core high speed system between Canberra Sydney and Newcastle, and then eventually add Melbourne and Brisbane to this.
A gr4eat video and how very very true!! Oh, and a big thumbs up.
The long awaited sequel to "Why Trains Suck in America."
You make complete sense. Your arguments for better regional rail services make sense to me, to you and to nearly everyone else. There just have to be improvements in this era of rising fuel prices and the environmental problems. Also, what about poor Tasmania where there is no passenger rail at all. Excellent video and sorry for this comment being 2 years after the fact 😄.
Maybe, but I have to say, as a British enthusiast, I long to go over to NSW for the steam scene. It looks amazing.
Hi Aussie Wirraway - the simple answer is that this is a country of 25 million people occupying an area the same size of the contiguous 48 US states. Yes if a high speed service had been implemented 25 or 35 years ago it might have worked. But I feel the time has passed.
Most of those people live in only a small portion of that land in cities, this is the same excuse Canada took.
Thanks for the video... I've recently put out my first ever train video about the Overland (I normally only do flight reviews). Its really piqued my interest in rail travel and the more I researched, the more dismal I found it. And your video just kinda underlined my thoughts.
Your information is rather dated or outright incorrect. I am guessing you are in South Australia where there are only two regional centres with a population greater than 20,000 and a limited requirement for inter-regional transport. How can you justify running a daily train service when the bus service is not running at capacity. Next look at NSW, our most populous state. The passenger rail service there operates, in some instances, eight services per day to regional centres. The Hunter line, Lithgow etc. Then there is twice hourly services on the Illawarra, Newcastle and Blue Mountains lines. That is working. As you pointed out Australia is huge and with a relatively small population, roughly 1.5 people per square kilometre. So there is the problem, no matter how good and how frequent the rail service... we do not have the population to warrant it. A twice daily service between our two largest cities (outside of covid) operates well short of capacity. Now let me be clear, I love rail travel however, I cannot justify sitting on a train for two days when I can fly in three hours and for only a slightly greater price. No matter how cost effective it becomes and even if service speeds were improved, some lines are still a very very long way. Significant infrastructure, significant maintenance and significant time seated adds to the national burden. So at the beginning I guessed you are in Adelaide. I looked at the twice weekly service, the Overland has two classes, Kangaroo ($56.00) and Kangaroo Premium ($129.00) a reasonable price. The underlying fact is it is still close to 1000 kilometres and 10 hours. Even taking into consideration travel from airport to CBD at either end, travel from Adelaide to Melbourne takes 1 hour in the air and a bit over an hour on the ground. The price a few minutest ago was $47. You choose.
having 3 gauges is wild. Say what you will about passenger rail here in the US but we're lucky that we basically accidentally ended up with a single standard gauge
In most situations and countries, good passenger rail not only involves good equipment, but a number of other factors which can vary from country to country. Train service usually involves a city-to-city proximity where useful hop-on-off schedules can be fully utilized. Since Australia’s cities are mostly located along the coasts of the continent, with the big exception of Alice Springs, I think people simply prefer to fly. I have been across the Nullibor, and there a only a few watering holes there.
Terowie south australia was a break of gauge station. They then changed gauge between terowie and peterborough (formerly known as petersberg)
Then peterborough become break of gauge.
Terowie line is no longer in use.
Great video! Australia is set up well for regional rail - it’s just a matter of upgrading the existing system from routes built in the 19th century.
Better coordination, with increased frequencies, and even moderate speed improvements will bring rail travel time down to less than driving. If it can be cost competitive - with reasonably priced sleeper berths on long distance routes, it can really make chip away at the airline market.
It makes sense to start with upgrades on the Sydney to Canberra route - it doesn’t need to be full high speed - but just making the route more direct so a trip takes 2 to 2.5 hours instead of almost 4 - this will be competitive with flying when you think of the time involved in going to the airport + security etc…
I like traveling in Trains more than Aeroplanes.
Amazing video
There is no mystery why intercity train travel has declined so much in Australia. The distance between our major cities make air travel much faster. Since the airline industry was deregulated & the arrival of budget airlines, flying is price competitive & often cheaper than train. It isn’t just trains either. Coach travel between the major cities has also plunged.
Ironically, train travel becomes more cost competitive during the long weekends & holiday seasons. Plane tickets skyrocket during these periods, if they're not already marked up by the airlines. Train ticket prices stay fairly flat, and I recall I was able to get a ticket for SYD to MELB just a week before travelling on Dec 23rd. Also, airports are packed & flight delays common. This Easter break, folks were advised to show up at the airport AT LEAST 2 hours before our flight.
@@jonathantan2469 that is why sports fans going to semi-finals or the Grand Final of their sport in either Sydney or Melbourne, people from either the other city book trains because once the teams are known, airline tickets shoot through the roof. I have done that due to A-League Grand Final.
Passenger trains just in general. To inflexibility, to expensive, and to niche. They only work if you can fill the trains. Just to many empty passengers trains. Freight trains packed ,buses packed, planes packed, and roadways packed.
Informative.
12:30
took me some time to realize.
when I saw the first town road I was like - wait a minute, I know this game, I have bus lines to add and a city to place today :D
Could asked me some Queensland footage haha. Nice video
will do in future!
Australia is as big as the continental US but only has a population of 27 million. Most people live on or near its state capital cities, which are hundreds of miles apart. Obviously most people are going to fly. It would be prohibitively expensive to run dozens of trains per day on a route if there are no passengers. England is smaller than Victoria and has 50 million people. Obviously many more will take the train.
You wouldn't need dozens. Maybe 6, 2 at express (one or two stops) a day. You could even have another cheap overnighter/sleeper service . There is a market for that.
That still doesn't explain why there isn't a better connection between Sydney and Melbourne, which both have large populations and are relatively close together by Australian standards. If you build a decent high speed line, it will do the trip in about 4 hours. Sure it only takes 1h35 by plane, but you have to get to the airport from the city, get there early even, check luggage, go through security etc.. I don't see why it wouldn't be competitive and profitable in the long run. If they go all out on the speed, 3 hours by train is achievable, though way more expensive than 4 hours. Of course, to be competitive in this way, politicians and rail operators must refrain from adding lots of stops to the line...
The second largest city in the UK, after London, obviously, is Birmingham, with 1 million people. Sydney and Melbourne each have a population of 5 million, and are 450 miles apart. It makes perfect sense to link them by high speed rail.
Victoria has good regional rail and so is the Intercity rail between Sydney and Newcastle as well as between Brisbane & the Gold Coast, but other than that, it really lacks.
I went to boarding school and used to catch the Queensland Tilt Train a lot as a teenager, back in the late 90's/early 2000's I recall it going a lot faster than it does now, sometimes up to 180 - 190 km/h. I think it was only after the big crash in I think 2006 that they dialed the speed back on it, now it mostly does around 120 - 130ish.
Privatisation was what fucked rail in New South Wales, and I suspect it's done the same elsewhere.
Thanks for this I live in Canada but originally from Blighty the state of our railways are just as bad.
If you think Australia's passenger trains suck, jump across the ditch here to NZ and take a look around. We're stuck with narrow gauge everywhere, meaning no high speed services are possible. We have one intercity train which travels part of the North Island, one which travels part of the South Island and one which goes from Christchurch to Greymouth and is more of a tourist train. Don't get me started on suburban rail - that's even worse. At least the subbies in Aussie actually service the majority of the cities. Here, our cities have grown and expanded with no extra rail connections added (apart from one small branch line) since the 1940s. It's hardly a suburban system in any city.
I got trainpilled watching Bald and Bankrupt travel the largest country in the world, Russia, on the old Soviet rails. Free to stop and take a detour or simply take in the culture of every place on route, not having to stress about making tiny mistakes that lead to death on expensive roads, comfortably socialising and even sleeping in their cabins... All cheap and efficient. I'd love to have that in Australia and travel this country that way. I get that the initial cost would be enormous and that planes are cheap(ish) but the idea of relying on them to have a travellable country seems madness to me.