International Railroad Discussion > Australia travel advice

Heading there for a break from winter. Arriving Sydney and making way to Adelaide to visit a cousin, flying back from there.

Have about 10 days to fill in. Not planning on a car rental, want to use trains for travel - if possible. Passenger rail in Australia outside the major metros seems as spare and second-thought as in the US.

Point of my travel is to take in the experience and get a sense of place, not a railfan trip. Looking to balance the best of both.

In that light I welcome recommendations of the best train routes, stopover points of interest, and a good day trip rides out of Sydney and Melbourne.

To get to Adelaide it seems the only way there direct by rail is the twice-weekly Overland, more of a cruise train experience ala the Canadian. Any other ways to get there by rail by any routing? Bus operators to use or avoid?

Please share,
TIA

I enjoyed this:

https://www.bridgeclimb.com/

Also the Botanical gardens in each city. 

Day trips to Blue Mountains west of Sydney are enjoyable.

 

Train trips out of Sydney.
Day train trips out of Sydney are possible to the north, west and south.

Travel down the Illawarra will give some great scenes of the Pacific Ocean and The Royal National Park as you travel south.
Spend some time at Kiama, time for a beer or some lunch, before returning to Sydney Central Station.

Train to the west will produce some spectacular views of the Blue Mountains National Park, climbing to over 3000 feet above sea level
in about 30 miles from Penrith. Katoomba and Leura are probably the best places for a lunch break and maybe a beer. 

Both of these trips have frequent train service, but not much in the way of freight traffic, where if you were to go north to 
Newcastle and Maitland, there is more coal trains to be seen. About 2.5 hours by train to Newcastle and a change to a local service
to Maitland, puts you on the line for the coal ports, probably the world's busiest, when one train disappears, another isn't far away.
Some fantastic views of the Hawkesbury River can be seen along the way, with some relatively high speed running too.
You might be lucky and catch one of our new D sets, new in service a couple of weeks back.

Any questions I might be able answer for you. 

Graham.

Hello PumpkinHogger,

in the state of Victoria a number of heritage operations may be found. I highly recommend the streetcar in Ballarat. It operates on a short stretch of the original network. Most likely they only run Sundays. In Bendigo the streetcar system is kind of semi-retired but operates as a tourist service. In town also is museum which showcases the gold mining heritage. This is fairly elaborate. In Daylesford a number of railcars operate on a shorter stretch of a former branch of the Victorian Railways. In the Yarra Valley there is another heritage railway operating some Diesel railcars. The area is also known for its whineries. All places mentioned are accessible by public transport. Schedules might be a hit and miss, but there should be daily services. As almost everywhere railway operations have been streamlined. So, an N-class in passenger service might as well be considered a heritage operation. But I am not really up to date here. Maybe I come around to post a few pictures of some of the operations mentioned.
Noteworthy is the Steamranger heritage railway in South Australia's Adelaide Hills. Near Port Augusta running into the town proper is the Pichi Richi Railway a remainder of the former narrow gauge railway to Alice Springs.
Current timetables of freight trains used to be more or less easily available via the internet. I do not know if this is still the case. They were also kind of accurate.

Cheers

kbs651

No one has mentioned that you can go from Sydney to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific. Fancier and more expensive but a nice ride. I have ridden the oft-threatened Overland between Adelaide and Melbourne twice and always enjoy it. You get nice food in the upgraded class for a very reasonable fare.

The ride up to Belair in the Adelaide hills is very scenic and there is a national park there. You can also ride the tram out to the beach at Glenelg. There is also a pretty nice railroad museum at the Port of Adelaide.

Knowing the price would be obscene, I did look at the Indian Pacific to Adelaide. Several thousand for an overnight amongst the Beautiful People. Nope!

Arranged my dates to get to Ararat on a Thursday to position for The Overland on Friday to Adelaide. I see it uses the line from Belair into Adelaide.

Been looking at tram lines in Adelaide, which seem to be a mix of DMU's and traditional trams.

Museum is def on the radar, and have found pleanty of railfan diversions in the area.

Cheers for the respones guys


NMlurker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No one has mentioned that you can go from Sydney
> to Adelaide on the Indian Pacific. Fancier and
> more expensive but a nice ride. I have ridden the
> oft-threatened Overland between Adelaide and
> Melbourne twice and always enjoy it. You get nice
> food in the upgraded class for a very reasonable
> fare.
>
> The ride up to Belair in the Adelaide hills is
> very scenic and there is a national park there.
> You can also ride the tram out to the beach at
> Glenelg. There is also a pretty nice railroad
> museum at the Port of Adelaide.