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John Zaitseff’s Train Travels for 2014

The Challenge

Transport NSW Trainlink offer a Discovery Pass with unlimited travel on the NSW TrainLink Regional train and coach network: fourteen days unlimited travel for just $232!

The challenge: is it possible to travel the entire TrainLink Regional train network in those fourteen days? That is, to travel on every country train (apart from the Indian Pacific) in NSW in a fortnight?

The answer: yes, it is! And that is what I will be doing in October 2014: travel to Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Broken Hill, Griffith, Dubbo, Moree and Armidale by train, mainly during the day.

And as to why? Well, why ever not? ☺

The Itinerary

Part of the challenge is that some NSW country trains only run once a week, others once a day. So the challenge involved pulling out all the timetables to see if a grand schedule could be worked out—and whether seats would be available on those trains.

The key restrictions were the Sydney–Griffith and Sydney–Broken Hill trains: the first only runs on Saturdays (returning Sundays), the second only runs on Mondays (returning Tuesdays).

With this in mind, I worked out the following schedule:

Date Service Departs Arrives Route Distance Duration
Sat 11 Oct CLK641 XPLORER 06:57 15:20 Sydney–Griffith 640 km 8:23
Sun 12 Oct CLK642 XPLORER 07:20 15:56 Griffith–Sydney 640 km 8:36
Mon 13 Oct CLK445 XPLORER 06:18 19:10 CDT Sydney–Broken Hill 1125 km 13:22
Tue 14 Oct CLK446 XPLORER 07:45 CDT 21:30 Broken Hill–Sydney 1125 km 13:15
Wed 15 Oct CLK243 XPLORER 09:29 18:00 Sydney–Moree 666 km 8:31
Thu 16 Oct CLK244 XPLORER 08:05 11:07 Moree–Werris Creek 255 km 3:02
CLK223 XPLORER 14:57 17:35 Werris Creek–Armidale 168 km 2:38
Fri 17 Oct CLK224 XPLORER 08:40 16:38 Armidale–Sydney 579 km 7:58
Sun 19 Oct CLK427 XPT 07:18 13:45 Sydney–Dubbo 462 km 6:27
CLK428 XPT 14:15 20:44 Dubbo–Sydney 462 km 6:29
Mon 20 Oct CLK623 XPT 07:32 18:30 Sydney–Melbourne 951 km 10:58
Tue 21 Oct CLK624 XPT 08:30 19:53 Melbourne–Sydney 951 km 11:23
Wed 22 Oct CLK33 XPT 07:11 18:41 Sydney–Casino 805 km 11:30
CLK175 Coach 19:08 21:34 EST Casino–Brisbane ~ 270 km 3:26
Fri 24 Oct CLK32 XPT 04:55 EST 20:12 Brisbane–Sydney 989 km 14:17
Sat 25 Oct CLK631 XPLORER 06:57 11:07 Sydney–Canberra 330 km 4:10
CLK634 XPLORER 11:40 15:56 Canberra–Sydney 330 km 4:16
TOTALS 10,748 km 138:41

(Version 1 of this itinerary had me travelling to Canberra and back on Saturday 18th October. I have rebooked these to Saturday 25th, due to the fact that on the 18th, the “train” would have had rubber wheels and travelled on a bitumen track, due to trackwork!)

With this schedule in hand, I bought my Discovery Pass and booked window seats on each one of these trains. And so I will be off, doing something I’ve always wanted to do…

The Cost

If I was to purchase each ticket separately, it would have cost some $1427.15. Instead, as already mentioned, the fourteen day Discovery Pass cost just $232. Excellent value for money!

The Results

Saturday 11th: A pleasant ride out on the train to Griffith, although we ran about half an hour late due to trackwork. This was my first time on that branch line. Griffith was hot, about 33°C, and I had forgotten to take shorts! Won’t make that mistake for Broken Hill… Walked around town, saw the main irrigation canal (the reason Griffith exists in the first place), had a nicely cooked rump steak at the hotel, and slept at the Gemini Comfort Inn.

Sunday 12th: The Griffith to Sydney run was free of any incidents—we ran mostly on time. This train joins up with the Canberra to Sydney train at Goulburn (the train on Saturday split into two for similar reasons). The countryside is so delightfully green at the moment!

Monday 13th: The Sydney to Broken Hill run did not start too well: the front two Xplorer carriages lost power at Leura. However, the driver managed to restart them, and we made up the half an hour delay by the time we arrived in Broken Hill. A long train journey—but quite interesting. Pouring rain between Lithgow and Blayney; everything very green. Semi-arid countryside past Euabalong West, outback desert past Darnick or so.

Tuesday 14th: Almost had a disaster this morning: my alarm did not go off, and I slept in! Had to leave in rather a hurry to get my train—which I did, just in time. An uneventful journey, ran on time right in the middle of a huge downpour of rain after Lithgow. These railway journeys remind me just how vast our country is—and I’m travelling just in New South Wales!

Check back for further updates!