Brisbane to Sydney by train

Thinking of doing this next month. Anyone done it?
Day trip or overnight more interesting? How expensive
is the food and drink on board?

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
Thinking of doing this next month. Anyone done it?
Day trip or overnight more interesting? How expensive
is the food and drink on board?

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

You don't have any choice, the train from Brisbane to Sydney is a day train.
It's a long trip, and you won't see the coast very often, as the line runs
inland for the most part. Quite varying scenery.

Food is mediocre, suggest you order any hot meals early or they're likely to
run out. There's no dining car, only a take-away facility. Prices charged
though aren't excessive.

For bookings and further info, www.countrylink.com.au Finally they've
dragged themselves into the 21st century so you can book online.

Regards

David Bennetts

David Bennetts wrote:

You don't have any choice, the train from Brisbane to Sydney is a day
train. It's a long trip, and you won't see the coast very often, as the

Thanks for the tips. I looked at www.countrylink.com.au and it offered
an overnight trip via Casino. Yes, I've found the menu on that site now
and compared to UK prices - for 9 AUD for a meal it doesn't *have* to be
more than mediocre.

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 01:10:19 GMT, Mary Pegg
wrote:

David Bennetts wrote:

You don't have any choice, the train from Brisbane to Sydney is a day
train. It's a long trip, and you won't see the coast very often, as the

Thanks for the tips. I looked at www.countrylink.com.au and it offered
an overnight trip via Casino. Yes, I've found the menu on that site now
and compared to UK prices - for 9 AUD for a meal it doesn't *have* to be
more than mediocre.

The overnight service is actually a bus service to Casino, picking up
the train there. The day service is a through train.

I myself would get the day train, unless you intend to pay for a
sleeping berth, then and only then would I use te night service.

Dave

=====

There are 10 types of people - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Dave Proctor wrote:

I myself would get the day train, unless you intend to pay for a
sleeping berth, then and only then would I use te night service.

Might save on a hotel for the night!

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
Dave Proctor wrote:

I myself would get the day train, unless you intend to pay for a
sleeping berth, then and only then would I use te night service.

Might save on a hotel for the night!

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

You could pay for the cost of a hotel for a night with the extra cost of a
sleeping berth!

Be aware of the following:

Sleeping berths are only available to first class passengers, cost an
additional $81.40 per person and must be booked when you make your
reservation. Please call 132 232 or visit a CountryLink travel centre or
agency to book your sleeping accommodation as berths can't be booked online.

There is only one sleeping car on the train, with twenty berths available
(10 cabins). If you intend to do this, suggest you book well ahead.

Regards

David Bennetts

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:13:28 +1000, "David Bennetts"
wrote:

You could pay for the cost of a hotel for a night with the extra cost of a
sleeping berth!

Be aware of the following:

Sleeping berths are only available to first class passengers, cost an
additional $81.40 per person and must be booked when you make your
reservation. Please call 132 232 or visit a CountryLink travel centre or
agency to book your sleeping accommodation as berths can't be booked online.

They often discount the cost of the berth if paid in conjunction with
a discounted ticket.

There is only one sleeping car on the train, with twenty berths available
(10 cabins). If you intend to do this, suggest you book well ahead.

18 beds in 9 compartments, actually. The one to get is the very first
cabin in the carriage, which has a toilet/shower area to itself, the
rest of the carriage has a shower/toilet area shared between two
cabins.

Dave

=====

There are 10 types of people - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:09:21 GMT, Mary Pegg
wrote:

Thinking of doing this next month. Anyone done it?
Day trip or overnight more interesting? How expensive
is the food and drink on board?

I wrote this a bit over a year ago, when they closed the
Casino-Murwillumbah section.

It's a bit of nostalgia; hopefully it will give some
impressions.

From rta-nz May 7 2004
http://tinyurl.com/dplyw

"I originally wrote the following two messages on a
different, medical newsgroup. Since then it has occurred to
me that some here may find it interesting.

Ignore the medical references, I was going to cut them, but
they are part of the story.

Befo

I grew up in the '50s and '60s when air travel in Australia
was expensive and rare for our family. I think my only
flight was on a DC3 in 1955, before I joined the RAAF in '64
and discovered slightly faster aeroplanes.

We were a far-flung family so I spent many nights on the
trains in New South Wales, on nearly all of the north and
north-western lines. I loved those nights, watching the
little stations flash past, or stopping at the "RRR" (Rail
RefreshmentRooms) while the engine wheezed and the water
and coal were replenished. I spent many christmasses at my
Grandparents' house beside the shunting yards at Narrabri,
watching fascinated as they re-arranged the wheat, coal and
goods carriages.

Now the short-sighted state government has decided to close
our local line. Local politics would mean little here, but
I'm about as angry about that as I can be. But that's a
battle I can't win.

So tonight I'm off to the Big Smoke for a week or so, for a
nostalgic 14-hour ride on the Murwillumbah to Sydney line
before they let the trestles decay and the sleepers rot.

See you all in a week or two.

Don't do anything you wouldn't want photographed while I'm
gone :-)

After:

Thanks all who asked about the little journey to nostalgia.
Therefore, a brief trip report on a relaxed week away. Well,
it started off brief, and then got Topsy-like. So stop now
if you haven't got an hour or two to read it.

Departed, an hour late, about 11 pm, so missed most of the
scenery through the hills. I like watching the little
stations flash past:
Stoker's Siding, Burringbar, Bilinudgel, Byron Bay,
Mullumbimby, Bangalow (where the palms come from, not
BUngalow), Lismore and we've only gone two hours with eleven
more to go. It's this section, Murwillumbah to Casino,
that's closing.

Shared my twinette sleeper with an old Digger returning to
Sydney who had gone to Brisbane to march with his mates on
Anzac Day (25th April). 90 years old, spry and alert, and
diagnosed T2 two years ago. Fascinated by my Accu-chek; he'd
never seen a meter.

Broken sleep punctuated by lights flashing past and the
doppler effects of passing sounds. Woke at 2:30 am while we
slowly shunted back and forth on the bridge over the
Clarence at Grafton as they changed engines and crews.
Nothing more silent and still than a river in the
half-moonlight. I grew up swimming in that big river, rowing
fours and butcher-boats, building rafts, catching bream and
throwing back catfish, square-dancing at the Jacaranda
Festival.

More broken sleep through Glenreagh, Nana Glen (Russell
Crowe's farmlet), Coramba, Coffs Harbour, Urunga, Nambucca
Heads, Macksville, Kempsey. Woke up properly at dawn as we
passed through the misty lush green valley of the Manning
River at Taree. Then the quiet farms and hamlets through
Gloucester and Dungog, the wine and coal country of the
Hunter Valley, Maitland, Newcastle. Spectacular scenery as
we passed through the central coast districts and Wyong,
Gosford, Broken Bay on the Hawkesbury.

Finally, into the urban sprawl of Sydney. Spent the next
three days using my ex-soldiers pass to travel on buses,
trains and ferries around the town like any tourist.
Chinatown, Paddy's Market, Australia Square, off to Manly on
the ferry watching all the tourists happily snapping the
Opera House and the coat-hanger (then joining them :-). I'm
a water person, so also on the ferries again - to Balmain,
Hunter's Hill, Parramatta. It's a wonderful harbour. Saw a
show at the Darlinghurst Theatre, ate in pubs (no chips
please, just salad with the fish, and how rough is the house
red ?) and Chinese and Indian (naan bread, no rice:-).

Then back to Newcastle for the three-hour bus ride to
Forster-Tuncurry on the lakes, to do all the little jobs
Mum's been saving for me to do at her place. She wants them
done before she heads off for her next odyssey in her
motor-home (RV); She's leaving today (alone) for four
months up the coast to the Daintree Rainforest in North
Queensland. Hopefully she'll be back in time for her 80th
birthday celebrations that I and my siblings are planning
for November. Obviously, this travel bug is hereditary. Sat
beside a lady in the train who, when she saw me test,
chatted about her hubby who recently passed away eighteen
years after diagnosis, with 'opathys for his final ten years
(retin-, neur-, neph-). "But he ate exactly what they said
he should..." Accu-chek as a conversation piece.

And, finally, departed Taree at 12:35 Tuesday for
Murwillumbah and home. The final stages wonderfully bright
in the full moon, watching roos bound along beside us at
dusk, arriving at 9 pm. Amazed to find the car still sitting
in the car-park, even more surprised when it started, then
home to Pottsville through the cane-fields.

Well, it started out to be brief....."

Incidentally, Mum just departed here again in the RV for
places north, solo, says she'll be back some time in October
so we can celebrate her 81st:-)


Cheers, Alan, Australia

Dave Proctor wrote:

18 beds in 9 compartments, actually. The one to get is the very first
cabin in the carriage, which has a toilet/shower area to itself, the
rest of the carriage has a shower/toilet area shared between two
cabins.

I'd be sharing a cabin anyway... but thanks for the tip. And thanks
to Henry and Alan for their stories.

--
"I was nauseous and tingly all over.
I was either in love or I had smallpox."

On 2005-07-14, Mary Pegg wrote:
Thinking of doing this next month. Anyone done it?
Day trip or overnight more interesting? How expensive
is the food and drink on board?

Train travel leaves much to be desired....slow, bad food....