Railways and Tramways of Australia

Up Sydney Express at Strathfield, New South Wales, hauled by G520 and 8173, 6 October 1989. Photo: Weston Langford, www.westonlangford.com/images/photo/117038/

A new era

The Melbourne Express and the Sydney Express began running on 3 August 1986.

Direct passenger train services between Sydney and Melbourne were inaugurated in 1962. The Intercapital Daylight provided a daytime service while the Southern Aurora and the Spirit of Progress operated overnight. Although they provided a high level of service in their heyday, declining patronage and associated financial concerns led to the two overnight trains being amalgamated in 1986. With little publicity the Southern Aurora and the Spirit of Progress departed for the last time on 2 August.

The following evening brought a new era for train travel between Sydney and Melbourne as the first services of the combined train began. 8158 and 8172 hauled the initial Melbourne Express on its southbound run. Meanwhile G516 departed from Melbourne with the first journey of the Sydney Express. Each train consisted of 17 carriages, which included sleeping carriages previously used on the Southern Aurora and sitting carriages from the Spirit of Progress, along with dining, buffet and lounge cars, and a motorail wagon. Signs with the names of the trains were attached to the lounge cars.

Both the Melbourne Express and the Sydney Express commenced their journeys at 8.00 pm, with the southbound service arriving in Melbourne at 9.00 am, and the northbound service arriving in Sydney at 8.45 am. This was the same schedule that the Southern Aurora had maintained, but the new train incorporated the stopping pattern of the Spirit of Progress in both directions: Sydney, Campbelltown, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Yass Junction, Harden, Cootamundra, Junee, Wagga Wagga, The Rock, Henty, Culcairn, Albury, Wangaratta, Benalla, Melbourne.

The Melbourne Express and the Sydney Express operated for the last time in November 1993. They were replaced by an overnight XPT service.

Yet another new era of travel had arrived.

Bibliography

C Banger, Southern Aurora and Melbourne Express & Sydney Express 1962 – 1993, amended edn, Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW Division), Sydney, 2016.

C Banger & P Dunn, Spirit of Progress, Australian Railway Historical Society (NSW Division), Sydney, 2019.

J Insall, ‘Farewell the Sydney/Melbourne Expresses’, Newsrail, vol. 22, no. 1, January 1994, pp 7–9.

R Smith, ‘Melbourne – Sydney services’, Newsrail, vol. 14, no. 12, December 1986, pp 356–9.

R Smith, ‘Sydney Express and Melbourne Express’, Rail News Victoria, no. 52, December 1993, pp 1–6.

Up Melbourne Express at Middle Footscray, Victoria, hauled by 8169, 28 August 1993. Photo: Weston Langford, www.westonlangford.com/images/photo/118941/