Our Introduction to the Indian Pacific

Yesterday (that was Saturday January 11) afternoon we finally boarded the Indian Pacific Railway to take us to Sydney. Finally not only because of the few months’ anticipation of the trip, but also because for some reason head office at Journey Beyond advised everyone to be at the station at 1:00 p.m. but boarding wouldn’t start until 5:00. Of course most of us didn’t know that, so the poor staff were scrambling to start checking us in and taking the checked bags for loading in the luggage car. 

The Welcome Banner

They had a nice setup on the platform with seating for everyone, champagne and wine and afternoon tea type sandwiches, cakes and cookies. They also had some wildlife preservation people there with a koala and a snake.

The cute little Koala was very attached
to her handler, but happy to get back into her tree.

The train arrived a little before 5:00 and surprisingly we were boarding within an hour. The Indian Pacific has only been running regular service since 1970. Full cross country service had been available before that, but as each state in Australia had decided on its own what rail gauge to use, they were all different. And within the states, many are still using their old systems. But back then, to travel between Sydney and Perth would require changing trains 5 times! In the early 1960s it was decided to standardize the gauge for at least one line to provide easier transportation of both goods and passengers from coast to coast. Once the passenger line was completed it was named the Indian Pacific because it spanned the country from one ocean to the other.

  

We were assigned our Platinum Class double compartment in coach L, room #2 and found our on-board bags already waiting for us. The daytime configuration of the room is actually spacious enough, with a couch and small table with 2 ottomans you can pull out. There’s also storage space in the ottomans, so that’s where we put our shoes. We had to wait for our hostess to show us some things in the room and give us our dinner time assignments, so we unpacked as far as we could while we waited. There is quite a bit of storage room on both sides of the couch and a large but not too high shelf over the bathroom, but our duffel bags were still piled up in the corner under a small table.

   

Our train manager made an announcement before we left with a couple of statistics. There are 209 guests on the train, at least as far as Adelaide, where people can disembark and embark for partial crossings. The train has 32 coaches, some of which are storage, kitchen and staff coaches, and is over 800 meters long!! You can hear it for yourself as we have a brief look over the room.

This is what the cabin looks like set up for sleeping. The area around the bed is so narrow that it was very hard to turn around. Moving around required a bit of advanced planning!

Reaching our lounge/dining car requires us to cross through car M. At least we don’t have to traverse long stretches of the train! Moving between cars is quite easy to do and doesn't require going outside, although the small area between the doors can be very, very warm if it is hot outside. Our lounge car is decorated in what you would probably call ‘mid-Century modern’, or as Larry says, ‘early’70s recreation room’. It is really quite comfortable, though. Our service staff are all great and can’t do enough for us all.

The Platinum Club Lounge carriages are a combined lounge and dining car because each one only serves about 20 people, or two Platinum carriages. In Gold Class there are designated lounge and dining cars as there are many more guests. We figure there are about 60 Platinum Class and 150 Gold Class passengers on our train.

 

We had a lovely dinner. The menu choices are quite varied and the portions are a good size. Larry had Asian style dumplings for his appetizer and cannelloni for dinner, and I had a cheese soufflé and lamb shank. A cheese plate and dessert if you wanted it rounded out the meal. We didn't take photos of every meal during the trip, but they were all delicious.

  

We were already advised by Summer, our hostess and room attendant (responsible for putting the bed up and down each day and taking general care of the room) that our tour was departing a little after 6 a.m. and brunch was being served upon our return at 9:00. So we decided to get to bed early and hope we’d get enough sleep.