I seem to be talking to myself here, but anyway, the latest news is
that the Overland will continue for another year:
<quote>
the Victorian Government has made an additional AUD200,000
contribution to its existing funding agreement to support the
operation of the Adelaide-Melbourne service.
Great Southern Rail has made the decision to absorb a further
AUD130,000 in operational costs to ensure the level of required
financial support is met for this service.
We [GSR] have also committed to a full review of The Overland in early
2019 to explore its long-term sustainability beyond 31 December 2019.
We will open up for 2019 bookings for The Overland from Wednesday, 12 December.
To mark the 12-month extension, we are offering a special deal for 10
days only (12 to 21 December 2018).
? Adults who book a ReadyRail fare will receive a 50 per cent discount
off the Adult Everyday fare
? Eligible concession travellers who book a Pension Saver fare will
receive a 50 per cent discount
? Children travelling with a person holding one of these discounted
fares will receive an additional 20 per cent discount
This limited-time offer applies to travel only for the first three
months of 2019 and is available for both Red and Red Premium bookings
on The Overland.
</quote>
(from <https://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/news/2018/12/11/the-overland-to-travel-in-2019>.
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================
Well, maybe you're talking to yourself, but at least I am listening! :-)
Thanks for the updates. We're into - special - trains, so this is
quite interesting.
We've done the Indian-Pacific (ADL-PER) and Ghan (ADL-DRW) and will be doing the Savannahlander (Cairns-Cairns) in April.
On Wednesday, 12 December 2018 11:37:17 UTC, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Well, maybe you're talking to yourself, but at least I am listening! :-)
Thanks Frank, that's very comforting!
Thanks for the updates. We're into - special - trains, so this is
quite interesting.
We've done the Indian-Pacific (ADL-PER) and Ghan (ADL-DRW) and will be doing the Savannahlander (Cairns-Cairns) in April.
I have previously done the Indian Pacific from Adelaide to Sydney, and
the strangely unnamed XPT service from Sydney to Melbourne - except
that we were bustituted for the last couple of hours because a
derailed freight train had ripped up the track.
We've currently got
Perth to Adelaide booked for next year, but the uncertainty over the
Overland has stopped us booking the Adelaide to Melbourne leg. Which
would have been a big problem, given that we're flying back home from Melbourne.
BTW Great Southern are launching another "special" train next year, appropriately named the "Great Southern". It will run between Adelaide
and Brisbane, via Melbourne and Sydney. Four days, three nights and
nine meals, says the blurb at <https://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/trains/great-southern#itinerary>.
A variety of coach excursions seems to be on offer for visiting
interesting places off the rail network, like the Twelve Apostles and Canberra.
The first train leaves Adelaide on 6th December 2019, and the last run
for the inaugural season will leave Brisbane on 30th January 2020.
If you're up for it, you could do Adelaide to Melbourne via coach
(bus) and train, but you would probably want/need to spend a night
somewhere.
We've regularly done Adelaide to Mount Gambier (we've Aussie rellies
in that area) by coach and Melbourne to Mount Gambier by train (Adelaide
to Ballarat) and coach (Ballarat to Melbourne. Let me know if you would
like some pointers for these services.
On Wednesday, 12 December 2018 15:06:40 UTC, Frank Slootweg wrote:
If you're up for it, you could do Adelaide to Melbourne via coach
(bus) and train, but you would probably want/need to spend a night somewhere.
We've regularly done Adelaide to Mount Gambier (we've Aussie rellies
in that area) by coach and Melbourne to Mount Gambier by train (Adelaide
to Ballarat) and coach (Ballarat to Melbourne. Let me know if you would like some pointers for these services.
Thanks for the offer. I'm still hoping we can book the train. I've got
the travel agent working on it now. Travelling by road, whether coach
or car, does seem to mean spending a night somewhere. It's a long way
to travel! Most Australians would fly, which is why the train
struggles to survive. But we will have heavy luggage, and that's not
easy or cheap on a plane.
We need to get to south of Geelong and the coach option is actually
three coaches, changing at Horsham and Ballarat. Or an insanely long overnight trip, arriving at a silly time in the morning.
Thanks for the coach stuff, Frank. But I am extremely pleased to tell
you that we now have our tickets. I had to e-mail GSR, then e-mail
them back with sundry details like name and phone number of emergency contacts. I'm still not clear if they meant "next of kin" in case of
an accident, or just a fast way of contacting us if the train wasn't
running.
And then, having supplied all this, I had to telephone their sales
office in Adelaide at dead of night [1], to pay them over the phone.
And pay a credit card surcharge of 1.4 per cent. Still, we did get a
discount on the normal fare because of all the delays in advertising
the 2019 service.
We're going in Red Premium class, so we get three square meals
(breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea), and "Access to the licenced Café
828 Carriage". Licensed for the sale of Alcoholic Beverages, I trust,
but I wonder why it's called Café 828. Perhaps it's open from 8 in the morning till 8 at night, though that would imply being at least an
hour late reaching Melbourne.
(More details at <https://greatsouthernrail.com.au/onboard/service-levels/red-service>.)
[1] South Australia is currently 9.5 hours ahead of us in the UK.
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