THE DUBBO to Sydney XPT train turned 30 yesterday, but no one was there to wish it a happy birthday.
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Rail enthusiast Gordon Tindall was disappointed there was no cake and candles considering the importance the service has held.
“It’s a wonderful service to country people, I thought it would be great to share this with everyone,” he said.
The first full XPT set began carrying paying passengers between Sydney and Dubbo on April 8, 1982.
Addressing a decline in the state of the New South Wales rail system, it replaced the single locomotive daylight Central West Express.
Mr Tindall said it had been the government’s responsibility to provide a good service and we were lucky now to have retained it.
“It’s so significant, a tremendous asset and, while, it doesn’t have the same patronage now, it’s still quite extensively used,” he said.
It is understood the XPT is presently undergoing another series of refurbishments and upgrades.
Mr Tindall said he was disappointed that in 30 years the trains had not reached their full intended potential.
“They were built as high-speed trains, based on the successful British HST InterCity 125 trains from the 1970s,” he said.
“Regularly they can go at 160 kilometres, but on the track we’ve got they run between 60 and 90.”
“In the Blue Mountains it’s slowest, going between 60 and 80, that’s mainly because of all the curves.”
Mr Tindall said that poor track conditions and tight track alignments caused slow speeds.
“If there were better alignments they could cut an hour off the trip into Sydney,” he said.
In the 30 years, there have been calls to get rid of the XPT completely as well as a change of time for routes into Sydney.
Neither idea has come to fruition.
But regardless, the XPT remains a stalwart in transport to and from Dubbo.
RailCorp, the transport department entity providing CountryLink services, were contacted about the milestone but could not provide a comment by the time of going to print.