OPEN LETTER TO DEPUTY PREMIER JAMES MERLINO
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Some time ago my wife, Anne and I planned to do this return trip from Melbourne to Adelaide on The Overland train as a farewell to the old girl.
Fortunately the 'tardy' Victorian Government has agreed to help keep the service for the laughable 'trial period' of six months so the urgency for our journey is not relevant any longer! However, 'The Overland' still is to our minds, the most comfortable sitting car accommodation train in Australia and we were disappointed when Great Southern Railways (GSR) was going to withdraw the service after the end of 2015.
We of course understood GSR's reasons for going down that path, and were heartened when the South Australian Government put their money where their mouth was for a full three year period.
As for the Victorian State Government, what a joke! After a long and I am sure, exasperating time frame for GSR, the Vic's could only manage the previously mentioned six month trial retention period for this greatrail service.
As a Victorian I am embarrassed by our Government's negativity regarding the viability of The Overland Train which services some of the larger towns of the Wimmera region that sees no other rail transport, as well as providing a great service for people in that region to travel by rail to Adelaide.
Obviously V/Line doesn't appear to want any competition, even a limited basis, for their ‘bus’ service from Bendigo to Adelaide.
If my experience today is anything to go by, with a surly Victorian Book Clerk employed by my local Metro Station, and the person on the other end of the phone at PTV Central Booking Office whom the Metro clerk put me on to, it is little wonder that NO Victorians really know of this train's existence, and how hard it is to book a through journey using the Victorian Seniors Free Travel Vouchers for that part of the journey from Melbourne to Nhill and vice versa.
In the end the chap at the PTV Central Booking Office in Melbourne admitted that he didn't know of the trains existence and actually asked me "if it really is a train?".
The mid boggles! I asked him if it was in the V/Line service computer system, and he had to admit that "yes it is" - then it must be a train if the timetable says it is one! Really!!!!
I also told him that Anne and I are the type of people who actually like to book a TRAIN journey when contacting V/Line-PTV Reservations and that we despise any form of ‘long distance’ transport that has rubber tyres.
On the other hand GSR should be proud of its call centre personnel in Adelaide, especially Alook, who took it all in his stride and by doing so earned my admiration for his patience and willingness to listen to someone who first rode The Overland to Adelaide as a 16 year old in 1969! Well done Alook!
- Steve Holmes,
Menzies Creek