We tried an experiment the other day: a local weekend trip in Victoria, entirely on public transport. It was winter, I wanted to get away for a few nights, I’m pretty fond of jumping in the car and finding a country town I’ve either not been in or I’ve liked before, and having a short stay. I like traveling by train in other places. I use PT all the time if I’m going to the city, also use buses sometimes.
For commuting, I’ve done the Tube in London (duh how can you go to London and not use it), many a trip in Sydney on the occasions I’ve stayed there, Perth day trips, I’ve taken a train in Rome, and taken a lot of trains in Japan (local trains and Shinkanson).
I’ve done a 24 hour trip from Xining to Lhasa in a hard sleeper, and I’ve taken a trip from Hong Kong to Guilin, also on a hard sleeper. The lonely planet guide didn’t say you have to go through customs to get from Hong Kong to China to board the train – took hours…. and we very nearly missed our train to Guilin, but we made it, I’m still not sure how as there was also no signage in English. Noodles for dinner and resentful people in our compartment because we booked the bottom beds.
I’d never gone somewhere overnight by train in my own state. I decided on a town that had something to do in it, booked in a nice place to stay and found out what time V-line (the non-electrified rural trains in Victoria) trains go to Ballarat. I met D at Southern Cross station on Friday after work with my little wheelie suitcase and onto a passenger train we hopped!
I’d seen the ‘Vlocity’ trains before but never been on one. They are not pulled by a separate diesel engine like other V-line country trains – they self power. Smooth to ride on but the seats were not really very comfortable.
The trip was really pleasant. I read and listened to music but mostly I looked out at the landscape speeding by. We managed to get the only express so it didn’t stop everywhere out to Ballarat and it was a speedy journey, way under two hours. It takes me about 2 hours to drive there via citylink, assuming it’s not peak hour, and it’s a deeply unpleasant and somewhat dull drive through the freeway system and back; I hate the bit between the westgate until you go through the tunnel. On the back I listened to Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto and congratulated myself on getting a seat on the train that was full of footy fans going to a match. Of course then we had to get the train and bus home from Southern Cross. It was a long time on PT.
I do love the opulence of train stations in the Victorian era. We have trains and they are awesome and you will be wowed by them! That’s what they say! From the days of steam, of course.
Less opulent are the brown aluminum doors retrofitted into the existing structure. I mean, they work, but seriously dudes. UGLY.
The station was kind of cool too. The gates over the road are still the timber swinging gates I remember from my childhood, and the old signals have been left up too (unused now).
Ballarat was nice. COLD, yes. The drawback to training it in was having to walk anywhere once we arrived, though it did mean I got to know the main streets a bit more intimately than I’ve ever had before, having usually just driven through it. It’s a Victorian gold mining town; I suspect this is exactly what Melbourne would have looked like at the time, only Melbs modernised and Ballas did much less. Wide streets, lots of giant chunky carved buildings and statues. Nice.
I may do a blog post on our trip to Sovereign Hill some time. It was a pretty cold weekend – midwinter, but we did find an Irish pub which had a nice open fire, and hey, it was an Irish pub so we were forced to drink this with our parmas.
D vanished at some point and came back with Jameson Whiskey (I ended up actually buying myself a bottle later cause it was yummy).
All in all…I would travel by train again. I usually like to go to National parks and places that are out of the town where one needs a car – but for a trip like this where we were centered on the town and it was only two nights and winter, this was a really nice thing to do.