I'm surprised that they've still got the aircon on that freezing setting in spite of the feedback. It seems that it was set for a dense peak period crowd in summer and left like that. It certainly is possible to have a more sophisticated climate control regime, even an automated one.
I think my wife and I must have a different perception of train performance. We rarely use trains in NSW, only between Nowra and Wollongong nowadays because it's far more comfortable and quicker going by car to Sydney. Our main commuter train riding over the past couple of decades has either been in Perth or in Europe where all the trains perform like the Sydney metro. So for us it's the norm and we have no problems with it. But it does reinforce how excruciating the slowness is when stepping into the occasional trip by a suburban or interurban train in NSW.
Some years ago when our daughter was about seven, we had spent six months in Prague whizzing about on the very quick tram and metro systems there. She became quite a tram enthusiast and even decided she wanted to become a tram driver when she grew up. A bit of a speed demon. After we came back to Sydney, we took her on a ride on IWLR to continue the experience for her and she sat there in serious silence for a while, then turned to us and said: "why is this tram so slow?". Out of the mouths of babes. Says it all.
We have absolutely the slowest public transport in NSW, that's why the metro is such a sensational change, completing trips up to ten minutes or so quicker than equivalent semi-express suburban and interurban services over the same distance with the same number of stops. When we have those metro services open through to Bankstown, Parramatta and WSA we'll finally be catching up with the European-level performance of the Perth system.
The big pity is that these new interurban trains aren't going to make one iota of difference to journey times, it'll still be the same old amble. I wish they'd build a metro line to Wollongong actually. That would be about 70 km, the same distance as the Mandurah line in Perth where the trains take about 50 minutes (compared with 1.5 hours on the current Wollongong trains, which have less stops en route too). For a journey time of 50 minutes you don't need special long-distance trains with more comfortable seats. The Perth/metro type of train is fine. It's journey time that determines the level of comfort needed in a train, not distance. We need to stop thinking in terms of long distance trains and think instead of long journey-time trains. They're not necessarily the same thing.