Glen wrote:So they interpreted that sleeper cars mattered then.
IIRC after the cutbacks including withdrawal of the last sleepers, the Nationals suffered a few northern NSW seat losses in the 1990 federal election, and the cutting back of the rail network was deemed a key reason. Hence in the name of self interest, the state government decided to introduce sleepers on the XPT services and the Xplorers.
boronia wrote:If Dubbo was to be the maintenance base solely for XPT replacements, it would be fairly easy to roster workings to get a regular turnover through the depot. But if all the order is to be maintained there, it looks like a lot of empty running Sydney-Dubbo?
Having the maintenance centre anywhere but near the network's hub makes no sense. Yes there will be the ability to rotate the long distance stock to and from Dubbo for planned maintenance through the roster cycle, but the short distance stock will need to be worked empty. Any set that goes bang and is deemed to need work at base, will most likely have to be taken to Sydney, then to Dubbo so this will add another day to how long it is out of traffic for.
All for trying to promote growth in the regions, but there already is a trained workforce in Sydney, many of whom will no longer have jobs. The whole Dubbo things appears to be done purely for political rather than practical reasons.