Train Travel

As noted in my previous post on flying, traveling by train produces less emissions than flying. I and my partner have just completed a train trip from Adelaide to Canberra. We wanted to catch up with my sisters in Adelaide for my birthday and an early Christmas. We decided to fly one way from Canberra to Adelaide and then return using trains, thereby reducing our carbon emissions on one half of the journey.

On Thursday 22 December we traveled by train from Adelaide to Melbourne and stayed overnight in Melbourne. On Friday 23 December, we caught the XPT train from Melbourne to Yass, before transferring to a bus for the final journey to Canberra. 

We had considered using trains for both directions. However, the Overland train only goes from Melbourne to Adelaide twice a week (Monday and Friday). This would have meant leaving Canberra on Thursday 15 December for Canberra to Melbourne, staying in Melbourne overnight and traveling from Melbourne to Adelaide on Friday 16 December. However, we had other commitments that meant we could not leave on Thursday 15 December.

It was possible to avoid the overnight stop in Melbourne by getting a sleeper on the overnight train from Canberra to Melbourne. However, this involves 5 hours wait in Goulburn and getting on the train very late at night. Further, the Canberra to Melbourne train gets into Melbourne at 7:30am and the Overland train leaves at 8:05am, which makes it difficult if the train is delayed. A similar challenge exists if traveling in the opposite direction. For all of these reasons, using the overnight train between Canberra and Melbourne is not considered viable.

Adelaide to Melbourne 

The Overland train is run by “Journey Beyond”, a private company that also runs the Indian Pacific and the Ghan. The Overland train is scheduled to leave Keswick railway station in Adelaide at 6:55am and arrive at Southern Cross station in Melbourne at 6:50pm on two days a week (Sunday and Thursday). It cost us $115 per person on the train, which is considerably less than a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne.

On 22 December, we arrived at Keswick railway station at 6:05am, after an early start from the hotel. This station is not in Adelaide city and lacks the feel of the Adelaide railway station or Southern Cross station in Melbourne. For example, there was no café open at the train station and so no breakfast! 

We had breakfast on the train at about 8:30am, as it took some time for them to open up the train cafes. If we did the trip again, we would ensure we took breakfast with us. 

The train is slow. It takes 11.5 hours to get from Adelaide to Melbourne on the train but only 8 hours to drive the same distance. It is particularly slow climbing through the Adelaide hills. It takes almost 2 hours to get from Adelaide to Murray Bridge, which you can drive in about an hour. 

The train provides good views of the surrounding scenery. There are lots of wheat farms with wheat either having been harvested or ready to be harvested. There was a good view of the Grampians, similar to what you get when you are driving from Adelaide to Melbourne.

We were ahead of schedule at Geelong. However, Geelong and Melbourne experienced a massive storm which meant that we were unable to move from 4:30pm to 7:00pm. We had hail during that time. We finally started moving at 7:00pm but at a very slow speed. We were told that all trains were speed restricted as well. However, it seems that Vic Rail trains were moving faster than us. I couldn’t help but think that we were being treated differently because we were on a private train and not on a Vic rail train. WE finally got to the Southern Cross station at 9:20pm.

Melbourne to Canberra

The train from Melbourne to Canberra was a public XPT train run by NSW TrainLink. It runs every day. It is scheduled to leave Melbourne at 8:30am and arrive in Yass Junction at 4:05pm. As Canberra is not on the main Melbourne to Sydney train line, the final section of the journey is completed by bus, scheduled to arrive in Canberra at 5:40pm. It cost us $56.31 as we are seniors and entitled to a 50% discount.

We got to the Southern Cross train station in Melbourne at 8:00am and had to wait to get on the train as they were still cleaning the train. We left Melbourne 20 minutes late. No reasons were given for the late start but I assumed it was related to the storm the previous night. We arrived in Canberra only 10 minutes later than scheduled. 

Comparing the two train experiences

Trains in Australia are slow and this was certainly true for these two trips. It felt like the XPT traveled quicker than the Overland, but there were still slow sections especially between Cootamundra and Yass. European trains are much quicker. The XPT stopped more frequently than the Overland but stopped for less time than the Overland, which would have contributed to the longer time for the Overland. The Guardian had an article recently which argued that with upgrading of specific sections of the track, tilt trains could reduce the time to travel between Sydney and Melbourne from 11 hours to six hours. This would be most welcome and address the slowness of trains.

The Overland had better seats and facilities than the XPT. For example, the Overland had two cafes which had space to sit and eat whereas the XPT had only one café and required you to take meals back to your seat. There were better food options, better toilets and more staff on the Overland. 

Summary

If Australia is to reduce emissions associated with long distance travel in Australia by encouraging people to travel by train instead of flying, more must be done to reduce the time involved in traveling by train. Improving the tracks and using tilt trains could reduce travel times for both the Adelaide to Melbourne and Melbourne to Sydney routes. 

Currently, it is hard to justify doing two days of travel by train to get between Adelaide and Canberra when you can fly in under two hours.