Opinion & Commentary
Return to Flyer times with business class
The new train service between Sydney and Newcastle advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald promised to be fast and comfortable. The train’s ‘luxurious carriages’ would be ‘finished with polished crow’s foot elm and cudgerie, and fitted with comfortably-sprung seats’. Some seats would have tables and a buffet service would be available.
To regular commuters on the Newcastle to Sydney services, it sounds like something exciting to look forward to. After all, if you can get a coffee and a sandwich at 30,000 feet above ground on a 90-minute flight to Melbourne, why can’t you get one on a two-and-a-half-hour train journey to Central? And tables would be welcome for commuters wishing to work on their laptop computers.
Unfortunately, what seems like the dawn of a new age in New South Wales’s transport history turns out to be its past. The newspaper report about the new, comfortable train carriages was published on 8 November 1929. Today, 80 years later, passengers on the Newcastle to Sydney line can only dream of the amenities of the distant past.
Train travel was not only more pleasant early in the last century, it was also faster. In 1937, the ‘Newcastle Flyer’ travelled to Sydney in two hours 26 minutes – seven minutes faster than the current scheduled travel time.
With journeys getting slower, it would be nice if the comfort level had remained high if not improved. Yet the opposite is the case. The single-class trains that have been servicing intercity journeys in NSW for the last three decades offer a level of comfort to passengers that can no longer be described as adequate. International comparisons reveal that NSW intercity rail connections have not moved with the times. The seats are uncomfortable; there are no buffet services, no power sockets for portable electronic devices, no wireless Internet – features that are standard on many train connections in countries like the United Kingdom, Korea, Germany or South Africa.
For these reasons, taking the train is unattractive to business commuters who choose the more expensive option of driving when travelling intercity in NSW. Statistics obtained under Freedom of Information from RailCorp NSW show that there has been a 38% decline in patronage on the main commuter morning express service from Newcastle to Sydney since 2003 and an 18% decline on the return express in the evening. Traffic counts on the F3 Freeway have increased markedly, however.
Some simple policy changes would make trains a more serious competitor to the car. First, timetables for the only comfortable trains to service NSW’s major cities, the CountryLink XPT and Xpress, should be changed so that day commuters to and from Sydney can use them. At present, they are suited only for tourists. To use the current service, you would have to board the XPT at Broadmeadow at 4.10am to get to work on time and leave in the middle of the working day to return home.
Second, business class service should be introduced on intercity routes. A single class makes sense if you are travelling from, say, Wickham to Cardiff, but passengers have different needs for longer journeys. Relatively modest modifications to the existing rolling stock will make them more compatible with these needs: larger, more comfortable seats; fold-away tray tables; power sockets; and either a beverage service or vending machines. Of course, these amenities would come at an increased ticket price, set at a value that would not require extra taxpayer subsidies. Over time, the business fares might even generate additional revenue.
As the population grows in NSW, transport between urban centres will become increasingly important. If Newcastle Airport is eventually designated as the state’s second international airport, improved links between Newcastle and Sydney will be crucial. Fast trains have been the subject of discussion for many years but are still far from fruition. In the meantime, improvements in the quality of rail services would be a small but important step.
Comfortable train journeys in NSW should no longer be a distant memory of the past. It is time to go back to the future of rail transport.
Jennifer Buckingham is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies and co-author (with Oliver Marc Hartwich) of the report On the Right Track: Why NSW Needs Business Class Rail, released in October.
