A Transcontinental Send-Off to the Decade

[klm597]

Hi All,

I thought a quick little trip report of the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney might be useful for some. Any activity involving trains is an instant yes from me so when my father posed the question if I wanted to do the Indian Pacific I didn't take much convincing. We will be sending off the year (and decade) somewhere between Broken Hill and Parkes, NSW for the New Year's celebrations.

Once the train itinerary was booked in the flights followed suite. I needed a few more status credits to retain VA SC for the year so I booked BNE-MEL-PER for about the same price as the direct flight. Then just a cheepy SYD-BNE to get home.

I'm starting this report mid-way through the train journey so apologies for any delays in posting as we bounce through the wide-open land of no phone reception.

 

[klm597]

The journey started with a crowded yet civilised VA Lounge in Brisbane on Boxing Day. The lounge had roast ham, roast turkey and a few roast veggies out to celebrate the holiday season which was impressive but alas I was roast-ed out after Christmas Day. They also had an interesting Koyomi Highball on show which I enjoyed as it was not as sweet as the usual pre-mixed drinks.

On the flight down to Melbourne the crew handed out a second snack to celebrate Christmas after the usual drink and snack round. Whilst nothing substantial I appreciated the gesture.



The VA Melbourne lounge was just as busy as in Brisbane but at least there is a decent amount of sunlight! Boarding to Perth was fast and efficient, and priority boarding was enforced as per usual.



"Dinner" on this flight was a small vegetarian pasta, chicken, or fish dish with no other accompaniments - thankfully I had eaten enough food in the lounge to get me through the day considering the small serving size. The pasta was tasty though. Plenty of leg room in 10A and more than enough entertainment to get me through the flight (Star Wars Episode 4 Yes Thank You!).



My bag was third out which was very nice to see. Caught the 380 bus into town (there wasn't much of a wait) which ended up being quite full with a few arrivals from the Qatar A380 at that time. Always good to see people using public transport to and from airports. Can't wait for the airport rail link to open!

 

[klm597]

We spent two days floating about Perth and Fremantle catching up with a few friends. We stayed at the Frasier Suites in East Perth with a view over the WACA. No complaints really with accommodation.

I had been to Perth and Freo before but never to Rottnest Island so we spent a half day there. Despite the water being a little too cold for this Queenslander I was very impressed with Rottnest and we now plan to come back and stay on the island to experience it properly sometime in the near future.

 

[klm597]

Sunday morning arrived and we found ourselves at East Perth Station at 8am ready for the 10am departure of the Indian Pacific. Check-in was a breeze with no queues and there were snacks, tea and coffee set up on the platform. Cabin allocation was done at check-in.



My goodness this is a long train - 850 metres although it changes depending on demand. We departed Perth on-time with the staff making personal introductions to all passengers on board just prior. I was staying in a single cabins whilst the rest of my party were in the standard dual bunk cabins - all in the gold level of service. I'll leave my general comments about the train cabins for the end.

 

[klm597]

First impressions of the cabins were very good with everything clean and spotless. The single cabin carriages were significantly newer than the dual bunk cabin carriages however they were all in very good condition. Dual bunk cabins have private toilets where as the single cabins have a shared facilities. There is a tea/coffee/water station in each carriage which uses a Billi Tap straight out of an office.

There is the Platinum class which sits above Gold. I got a quick peak into the Platinum rooms halfway through the journey, they were more like a traditional hotel room with a double bed and two chairs and a fair bit more space. Platinum have their own dining and lounge facilities which are shared with a smaller number of people compared to Gold. The kitchen facilities are shared with Gold so I assume the food is identical - more on the food later.

I'd say most people would be pretty happy with the Gold service. There isn't a huge distinction between the two other than the space and we never felt like we were lesser than the Plats. This mostly came down to the staff and service pattern I feel - more on that later too!

 

[craven morehead]

Choo choo ! I'm following along.

 

[klm597]

Shortly after departing Perth the staff went through asking for everyone's preferences for the off-train experiences in Kalgoorlie and Adelaide, as well as explaining how the meals worked and taking bookings for lunch and dinner that day.

After departure we walked down to the lounge and dining cars to explore. The entire train is compartmentalised with (in our case) each lounge and dining car being shared with only 4 passenger cars. Either crew or kitchen cars were used as boundaries between each section so passengers couldn't walk the entire length of the train.

The crew also seemed to be assigned to each section as well. This compartmentalisation works well from a social perspective as everyone gets to know their fellow passengers over the 4 days. The staff are all based in Adelaide so there was a new crew which took us from Adelaide to Sydney but we still got to know a few of them by name.

Shortly after departure we were also notified that the train would not be stopping in the Blue Mountains (as advertised on the itinerary) as the train line was closed due to the bush fire crisis. We were half expecting to be bus-ed into Sydney but the crew insisted that we would be able to re-route around the Blue Mountains and get into Sydney only a few hours behind schedule. The entire advertised journey is shown below.

 

[klm597]

A few hours after departure it was time for lunch. I won't review every meal here as there were a lot of them, but will give a quick run down on how it worked. As the kitchen and dining cars cannot cater for everyone at the same time each meal was staged with various dining sessions over a few hours. Well before each meal one of the crew took meal time orders and assigned everyone with a time.

The crew tried their best to keep parties together but as ours had an odd number of people and each dining table takes four people, we shared a few other meals with our fellow train travelers. This is all part of the experience however so no complaints from me.

In general we were all pretty happy with the food - significantly better than your average business class meal in the air. Most of the time each meal was delicious and the serving size appropriate. Breakfast and lunch were two-course while dinner was three-course. A few meals suffered from the 'trying too hard' syndrome where we all thought simpler would have been better but in the grand scheme of the journey it wasn't a big deal.

Every meal and menu were different and each were inspired by the locality we were passing through at the time of the meal. There were usually two main course choices for breakfast and lunch, whilst dinner had three choices. I was particularly impressed with each meal always having a vegetarian option - something I appreciated greatly. There was never a huge wait time once seated as well.

 

[klm597]

Moving on to the drinks! The entire journey is about as 'full service' as one can get. Tea, coffee, water, juice and of course alcohol could be ordered at any time from the bar in the lounge car or during meals.

I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the drinks menu (it remained constant throughout the journey) but I will do my best to recall it below. Whilst not high-end, the drinks were usually perfectly acceptable and never felt particularly cheap. It kept us all very happy.

• A few Australian beer and ciders (McLaren Vale Ale and Adelaide Hills Cider were the standouts),
• Two Australian sparking wines (apparently one was very good whilst the other terrible),
• 6 or 7 Australian reds and whites respectively (sourced from around the country, usually okay).
• Tanqueray Gin and Fever Tree Tonic (I didn't ever look at the other spirits available ).

The coffee was also pretty good, with the bar having a proper barista machine which the staff always used.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for the report! Out of interest, what were the drink prices? Glass of wine, beer and a mixed drink (G&T)? And coffee?

 

[muppet]

Thanks for the report! Out of interest, what were the drink prices? Glass of wine, beer and a mixed drink (G&T)? And coffee?

Surely included.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surely included.

oh! It seems they are! That makes the fares a little more attractive (I watched an Amtrak review yesterday where all drinks have to be paid for, separately.)

 

[OZDUCK]

My brother took the train from Adelaide to Perth a couple of weeks ago and he complained that he had a very rough ride and it was very hard to sleep because of the jostling. It may have been just his cabin but how smooth was your ride?

 

[JohnM]

This IS timely! Following with great interest.

I've recently booked SYD-PER in Gold on the IP in late October on my way back from a trip to France, Spain and Chad (the latter is not a typo... ).

My CX F redemption CDG-HKG followed by my CX J redemption HKG-SIN and my BA F redemption SIN-SYD (why fly direct...) arrives on a Tuesday. The IP leaves for PER on a Wednesday. It was meant to be for the homeward leg, so I went for it.

Alco beverages are included in the price.

 

[Major]

Interested in the Blue Mountains detour

 

[klm597]

Surely included.

Whoooops sorry all. Yes all food and drinks are included. We didn't touch our wallets for the entire 4 days we were on the train (other than the gift shop in Adelaide ). All drinks seemed to be available at any time as well.

I didn't see any reference to any premium paid drinks either, although everyone was very happy with the included offerings.

 

[klm597]

My CX F redemption CDG-HKG followed by my CX J redemption HKG-SIN and my BA F redemption SIN-SYD (why fly direct...) arrives on a Tuesday. The IP leaves for PER on a Wednesday. It was meant to be for the homeward leg, so I went for it.

Are you travelling in one of the solo cabins on the IP JohnM? I found the solo cabins similar to the some First Class suites up in the air (based on pictures at least, I haven't flown F yet, but might have something in F locked in for later this year ) but with a bit more space and a lot more privacy. A few F flights closely followed by the train will be interesting!

Speaking of, the solo cabins all had shared bathrooms, with four toilets and two showers shared across each carriage of 16 cabins. Each cabin did have a small hand basin however.

Combared to the dual bunk cabins which each had a private toilet and shower, I actually prefered the solo cabin shared bathrooms as they were significantly larger, I never had a wait despite a full carriage, and they were always clean.

 

[klm597]

My brother took the train from Adelaide to Perth a couple of weeks ago and he complained that he had a very rough ride and it was very hard to sleep because of the jostling. It may have been just his cabin but how smooth was your ride?

It's very rough - worse than your typical suburban train ride in the capital cities, so A LOT worse than flying. I managed to sleep through two of the three nights without waking up in the middle of the night but many didn't. The alcohol helps . Others on the train who had done the Ghan said that line was a lot smoother. I'll talk about the ride quality based on each location below.

 

[JohnM]

Are you travelling in one of the solo cabins on the IP JohnM?

Yes - Gold Service, single cabin. I think that is the only option for solo travellers, is it not? (ie. I don't think they do Platinum Service single cabins.)

 

[klm597]

Back to the actual journey!

We powered out of Perth quite quickly through Toodyay and Northam on our way to Kalgoorlie. This line was very smooth and the first half was all dual track so we didn't have to stop at all. Closer to Kalgoorlie the track was just a single line (which it remained for most of the journey) meaning we had to stop at passing loops every now and then to let freight trains and the Prospector train pass.



We arrived into Kalgoorlie at around 9:30pm just after dinner. We were all bussed through the centre of town (which was deserted as you would expect at that time on a Sunday) to Hannans North Tourist Mine to watch a play about Kalgoorlie's history. I knew nothing of Kalgoorlie's history so I was interested but many others were not. We were then bussed to the Superpit lookout, which is what everyone really wanted to see. It was particularly spooky in the middle of the night and my sence of scale was completely thrown when first looking into the pit, but was still fascinating to see. Very hard to get a picutre at night though.



Back onto the train and I was fast alseep before we left the station. I woke up an hour later after we got away and was instantly very concerned with my ability to sleep due to the train's movement. The window blinds rattled a lot when closed so I opened them and wore an eye mask to counter this. Somehow I managed to sleep through until 6:30am which I was happy with. No complaints from me regarding the bed and pillows however.