A New Spirit of Progress

The two largest cities of Australia were first connected by rail in 1883. A lavish ceremony was held and that was pretty much that. The Victorian Leg was upgraded (or downgraded depending on your perspective) to Standard Gauge in the 1960s and a slight deviation was built around Bethungra in the 1940s, but aside from that the steam-era alignment remains today.

This is a problem.

In 1905 the journey took around 17 hours.

In the 1960s it took anywhere between 13 and 14 ½ hours

By 1988 the time was still around 13 hours.

And now, it still takes around about 12 hours on a good day; and more usually.

To have only cut off five hours in 140 years is both disgraceful and impressive in its ineptitude.

But the reason for this is not lack of innovation in terms of locomotives, it’s an ambivalence towards the route the tracks take. The XPT locomotives we have now could do the trip in around 6 to 7 hours, if they were allowed to reach their potential - and these are locomotives built in the 1980s. With even newer, conventional, medium speed locomotives, the trip could be done in as little as 5.

This route once had the grandest names of all Australian railways, The Spirit of Progress and the Southern Aurora. This route could once again be the grandest of all the Australian rail connections.

The Main Problem

The alignment through Victoria and to Wagga is as straight as it probably could be. It’s the route through the mountains between Wagga and Campbelltown that the problems really are. The alignment was made for steam locomotives, whose hillclimbing and breaking ability were nowhere near as good as modern trains. The alignment, therefore, tried to take the least hilly route possible which meant deviations are everywhere on the line. The route was also made to service the towns of the south of NSW which meant deviations were taken to service these towns even if it took the train miles off the most direct route.

If you follow the route of the railway between Cootamundra and Goulburn on a map, you’ll barely find even a 50 or 100 metre section of track without a bend in it. And bends are not conducive to fast trains.

The removal of these bends is what has been proposed by Dr Philip Laird OAM, Honorary Associate Professor at Wollongong University, and is what motivated me to write a bit about the line.

Bends, Bends everywhere

Get rid of these bends and two things happen. First, the railway shortens by a significant margin. Second, trains can both reach and then maintain high speeds for longer periods of time. Both reduce journey times.

Phillip Laird believes that this could cut around 60km from the route. That is a significant distance.

The current XPT trains can technically travel at 160kph (or even faster, but lets be conservative for once), and a 900km route could be done in around 6 hours with the current train still in place.

So, just these conservative changes will save passengers around 6 hours or so of travel time.

A Few More Radical Ideas

But then we get into some more radical areas. What if we reduce the length of the Melbourne Sydney route even more by cutting out some towns from it? Does the railway, for example, need to go through Picton? A route that adds around 20 kms to the route, and adds in more, unnecessary, bends.

Does it still need to go to Cootamundra, or would a more direct route between Junee and Yass Junction be more appropriate?

The distance carved off the route would mean even more time saved on the trip.

And then there are other options to look at about service quality. And to do this we must look to the past. The Melbourne-Sydney train should be the premier service in the country - that’s service, not tourism experience (so it’s not the Indian Pacific or the Ghan). So it needs to include things that used to be part of the rail experience - things like a club car, a sit down bar, a sit down buffet with a wide range of food. These are things that an airline cannot provide and cannot compete with. Rail travel allows you to get out of your seat and walk around, make the most of this.

And why not go beyond this, with other facilities that planes can’t provide? Charging Stations, Large, usable tables, WiFi. And think outside the box too - how about a form of childcare or just a kids play area. That would revolutionise rail transport for families - and make it a more attractive choice for many.

Another idea, bring back the capability to bring your car on the train - even if its only between outer suburban stations in Melbourne and Sydney, and not right in the middle of the cities.

Rail already provides many advantages over air transport, most notably the ease of check-in, the high baggage limit and city to city transport, but few people would think about this. So, why not advertise the hell out of the service. Right now, it seems like Governments are almost embarrassed by the service provided or by the state of the line itself. So they hide it, and seem to hope that it will die a natural death from neglect. That way they won’t have to pay for it.

But we need the opposite to happen. Advertise, get more people on the train and use the increased revenue to invest in the train, so you can keep fares cheap - something that is essential. No matter what upgrades happen, the Melbourne Sydney fare must remain around what it is now, so around the $90 mark.

The main point is to put people and service first and to differentiate from air travel, which was once glamorous, but has since lost its aura; an aura that rail travel still has.

The point of it all

Rail travel is the transport option for the 21st and 22nd centuries. The advantages it has over air travel are too many to mention, but the main ones are comfort for the planet and comfort for the environment. What once was the dirtiest form of transport has been transformed into a clean and fast option. Australia risks being left behind, blaming the Tyranny of Distance for the lack of rail infrastructure investment.

But this is a cop out. It’s simply a lack of imagination and a fear of waste.

But investment in a rail network is never a waste, investment in Public Transport is never a waste. It’s of vital importance to the future of this country.

The Melbourne-Sydney railway allowed for a united Australia as a concept to take route. A modern, fast rail connection between the two would allow the country to once again unite, a concept desperately needed in the post pandemic era.

It will create a new Spirit of Progress across Australia.