For years I have wanted to travel on some of Australia’s named passenger trains. Some of these trains carry or carried evocative names the “The Vinelander”, “Spirit of the Outback”, “The Ghan”, “Indian-Pacific”, and “The Overland”. Most of those trains are out of my reach until I have lots of money, lots of holiday time, or both. But there is one that has been much more within my reach, and more so since the Victorian Government capped intra-state travel on public transport to $11 a day: “The Overland”. So recently I worked out an itinerary to allow me to ride this iconic train.
Tue 18th March
Today I started a 4 day journey on Victoria’s public transport network, with the aim of travelling on the Overland train for the first time. Today’s journey was from Rutherglen via Echuca to Bendigo, using the Murraylink bus service, named after the Murray River, Australia’s longest river.
On the ticket it showed a train between Echuca and Bendigo which would have been another first for me, but alas it was a bus instead. Once at Bendigo I walked the km or so from the railway station where I alighted the bus to my accommodation for the night. As I only brought a day pack on this journey it means I have to buy food at the places I stay overnight.
Timetable
- Bus: Rutherglen 0745 – Echuca Station 1128.
- Bus: Echuca Station 1250 – Bendigo Station 1420
Wed 19th March
Today, day 2 of a 4 day journey on Victoria’s public transport system started with me walking from my overnight accommodation to the Bendigo railway station where I got the Bendigo to Adelaide VLine bus to Nhill in the western district. On the walk to Bendigo station I went a less direct way so I could take some photos of old railway buildings in the station precinct as shown in this post. Most of these buildings are probably from the colonial era when railway construction was at its peak in Australia. At least that’s what their style suggests.
After the 5 hour journey on the bus, I arrived at Nhill, booked into my accommodation for the night, and went to the local supermarket to buy some food. After relaxing in the motel room for a few hours until the temperature started to go down a bit I went for a walk around Nhill Lake and wetlands.
Timetable
- Bus: Bendigo Station 0925 – Nhill 1400
Thu 20th March
After a walk in the early morning into Nhill to buy some new laces for my hiking boots and to explore the town a little, I replaced my hiking boot laces and then made my way to the railway station to get some photos and wait for the train.
While I was there it rained quite a bit so I was thankful for the station veranda to sit under. After what sounded like a train approaching in the distance for about 5 minutes, the train that was the reason for this 4 day journey came into view as it rounded the corner to the west of the station.
The train left Nhill on time at 12:36pm and was due into Melbourne’s Southern Cross station at 6:50pm. The journey from Nhill to Southern Cross station is about 420km which according to the timetable takes 6.4167 hours, so the approximate average speed is a leisurely 65kph. Not fast by today’s standards, although I estimate the train’s top speed was somewhere around 120kph on the journey going by how many cars we overtook when the railway was close to a road. The train was running pretty much on time until about Great Western where there was a signal failure, apparently due to the weather, which meant we crawled along at 15kph for about 30 minutes or so. By the time we got to Ararat we were at least 60 minutes late. As I was going to get to my accommodation for the night quite late I decided to purchase some food on the train at about 4pm for my afternoon meal which included a Moroccan Cauliflower Salad. The train arrived about 8:15pm in Southern Cross, which meant it was still more than an hour late at the end of the journey. This was due to another problem with signalling in Melbourne, but this occurence was apparently due to copper theft, not the weather.
Timetable
- “The Overland” Train: Nhill Station 1236 – Southern Cross Station 1850
Fri 21st March
Day 4 of 4 on my “Overland” journey is the home stretch. My journey on The Overland being completed, the only thing left to do was head for home. The VLine train for most of this journey wasn’t due to leave until 12:04, so I have a few hours to fill in until then. So I started the day with a walk around Melbourne from my accommodation in Carlton to Southern Cross station, which included the Sandridge railway bridge.
This bridge once carried the Port Melbourne and St Kilda suburban branches over the Yarra River near Flinder St station, but as those two railways have been replaced by light rail / trams, the bridge has been converted to a shared pathway.
I found out later that at least part of the journey to Wangaratta would be by replacement bus – between Southern Cross station and Seymour station. This meant that I got home about an hour later than what the timetable said.
Timetable
- Train: Southern Cross 1204 – Wangaratta 1444
- Bus: Wangaratta 1454 – Rutherglen 1524
Although most of the travel, if reckoned by travel time, on this 4 day journey was on buses at least I was able to ride “The Overland” for most of it’s journey through the state of Victoria.
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