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acb

@Gaelan I’m Australian and have never heard of “Journey Beyond”. Are they a tourist operator of some sort? (Australia doesn’t have a federal passenger rail system, but states have their own.)

30 Sep 2023 at 13:27 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mastodon.social
7 comments
Robert Stainsby

@acb Journey Beyond operates the Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland. Closest we have to a national passenger rail operator now

30 Sep 2023 at 23:23 | Open on aus.social
acb

@robertstainsby Aren’t those all premium-priced tourist cruise services, as opposed to practical transport? I’d argue that, for example, NSW TrainLink’s XPT services (which cross into Victoria and Queensland) count more as a national passenger operator, as one could theoretically use them for transport.

30 Sep 2023 at 23:54 | Open on mastodon.social
Robert Stainsby

@acb yes, there’s a case to be made there. But the Overland is practical transport, or at least as practical as the XPTs.

30 Sep 2023 at 23:57 | Open on aus.social
jed

@robertstainsby @acb trainlink has 10x daily services to Australia's largest city, 2x to 2nd largest city, 1x to 3rd largest city and 3x to capital city.

Journey beyond has 2 trains a week in the entire country that have seats and aren't run as a cruise with multi hour stops for tours.

It's a shame they rebranded from countrylink, which legitimately sounds like the national railway it basically is :p

1 Oct 2023 at 20:58 | Open on aus.social
MelbPTUser

@jedsetter @robertstainsby @acb Hardly a national railway when it serves predominantly NSW and Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne...

1 Oct 2023 at 22:44 | Open on aus.social
jed

@MelbPTUser @robertstainsby @acb I don't know it's kind of impressive that a state railway connects Australia's four most important cities (ok theres a perth/brisbane debate) and maybe 80% of the population?

1 Oct 2023 at 23:52 | Open on aus.social
Kiran Castellino :he_him:

@jedsetter @MelbPTUser @robertstainsby @acb Well the breaks in gauges have meant that both Victoria and Queensland left it up to NSW to provide services, because they have a lot of standard-gauge trains. Victoria used to operate a standard-gauge service to Sydney until New South Wales introduced the XPT and Victoria withdrew their service. They also operated the Overland jointly with SA until the South Australian Railways were transferred to Australian National Railways (successor to the Commonwealth Railways, which was originally created to construct the trans-continental railways), and then Victoria pulled out in 1994 when the line was converted to standard gauge. Victoria has since reintroduced standard-gauge services to Albury. In short, NSW operating a coupe of major interstate trains is a historical accident, due to the fact they're the only state to have adopted the 'standard' gauge, the chronic cutbacks of rail services since WW2, and the destruction of the Australian National Railways.

@jedsetter @MelbPTUser @robertstainsby @acb Well the breaks in gauges have meant that both Victoria and Queensland left it up to NSW to provide services, because they have a lot of standard-gauge trains. Victoria used to operate a standard-gauge service to Sydney until New South Wales introduced the XPT and Victoria withdrew their service. They also operated the Overland jointly with SA until the South Australian Railways were transferred to Australian National Railways (successor to the Commonwealth...

2 Oct 2023 at 5:36 | Open on aus.social
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