New South Wales XPT

Development

Improving public transport was a major issue in the 1976 State Election in New South Wales and one of the promises of the incoming Wran Government was to buy new rolling stock for country rail services.

In January 1978 the Public Transport Commission invited tenders for 25 high-speed railcars similar to the Prospector railcars delivered by Comeng to the Western Australian Government Railways in 1971. The tender allowed bidders to suggest alternative types of high-speed train. Comeng submitted a tender for a train based on the British Rail designed High Speed Train which had entered service in the United Kingdom in October 1976. In August 1979 Comeng was announced as the successful bidder and although the tender had called for 100 vehicles, by the time the contract was signed in March 1980, the order was only for 30, 10 power cars and 20 carriages, enough to form four five-carriage trains with two spare power cars.

The High Speed Train design was significantly modified, with the power cars being 50 cm (19.7 in) shorter, the Paxman Valenta engine downrated from 2,250 to 2,000 bhp (1,680 to 1,490 kW), gearing lowered for a top operating speed of 160 km/h (99 mph), suspension modified to operate on inferior track, and air filters and the cooling system modified to cater for hotter and dustier Australian conditions. A different light cluster was ted along with three high-beam spotlights mounted to the roof. The passenger trailer cars were based on a Budd design, with the British Rail Mark 3 trailers considered unsuitable.

In service

The first power car and trailer commenced testing with a stainless steel luggage van in August 1981. The initial XPT livery was red, black and orange with InterCity XPT signwriting on the power cars. On a demonstration run to Albury on 6 September 1981 the XPT set a new Australian speed record of 183 km/h between Table Top and Gerogery in southern NSW, breaking that of Western Australia's 1971 Prospector railcar. On a test run to Albury on 18 September 1992 the XPT reached 193 km/h between Table Top and Yerong Creek. This record was broken by Queensland Rail's Electric Tilt Train in May 1999.

The first full test XPT set ran in January 1982. The four sets entered service on the Central West XPT to Dubbo in April 1982, the Mid North Coast XPT to Kempsey in May 1982 and the Riverina XPT to Albury in August 1982.

In 1983, a further five power cars and 15 trailers were ordered. These allowed the Canberra XPT to commence in August 1983 followed by the Northern Tablelands XPT to Glen Innes and Tenterfield (2 times per week only) in June 1984. By tightening up the diagrams, an overnight South XPT to Albury was introduced, but cancelled in June 1985 due to low patronage. In 1985 an additional 12 trailer carriages were ordered to allow six sets of 7 carriages to be formed. From October 1985, the Mid North Coast XPT to Kempsey ceased, being replaced by the North Coast XPT to Grafton. The Northern Tablelands XPT also was cut back to Armidale and only ran on alternate days with a HUB/RUB set operating on the other days.

Initially the XPT carried a fare surcharge compared to parallel locomotive hauled services, however this was abolished from May 1985.

Following the election of the Greiner Government in March 1988, consultants Booz Allen Hamilton were commissioned to prepare a report into NSW rail services. On purely economic grounds, the report recommended closing all country passenger services as they were judged unviable, however this was not politically acceptable. If services were to be maintained, the report recommended operating a reduced rail service, all with XPTs.

In February 1990, the Brisbane Limited and Pacific Coast Motorail were withdrawn and replaced by XPT services to Brisbane and Murwillumbah. To provide rolling stock for these, the Canberra XPT was withdrawn and replaced by a locomotive hauled train and the Northern Tablelands Express was truncated to become a day return service to Tamworth.

In June 1990, the government announced that it would purchase a fleet of Xplorers to reintroduce services to Armidale and Moree. When these were introduced in October 1993 the Northern Tablelands XPT ceased and the stock replaced a locomotive hauled set on a service to Grafton.

In October 1990, the government announced that eight sleeper carriages would be ordered for use on overnight services to Brisbane, Murwillumbah and Melbourne. These were included in an order placed with ABB Transportation, Dandenong in 1991 for four power cars and 13 trailers that was jointly funded by the New South Wales and Victorian governments.

In November 1993. XPTs replaced locomotive hauled stock on the overnight Sydney/Melbourne Express. In December 1994 an XPT daylight service to Melbourne was introduced by extending the Riverina XPT from Albury.

In 1995, CountryLink trialled three Swedish Railways X2000 tilting train carriages. After conducting a statewide tour in March, they were used on Canberra services from 23 April until 18 June 1995 with modified XPT power cars XP2000 and XP2009.

With the closure of the Murwillumbah line, the XPT service was cut back to Casino from April 2004.

Each January, an XPT operates a service to Parkes for the Parkes Elvis Festival. In October 2013 with a set isolated west of Lithgow by bushfires, it was deployed on the Outback Xplorer service to Broken Hill.

In October 2016, the NSW government announced the XPTs would be replaced. A contract is scheduled to be placed in 2019 for an early 2020s entry into service.

Services

The XPT fleet are currently used on five from Sydney, the terminus stations are:

The Dubbo set is captive and operates a daily return service. The other seven sets rotate on a seven-day repeating cycle as follows:

This pattern has led to the XPT being one of the most utilised train fleets worldwide with only two significant periods of downtime in the cycle. This includes one overnight stabling in Grafton, between Day 2 and Day 3, and one overnight stabling in Sydney between Day 4 and Day 5.

Initially all services operated with five carriage sets. Following the purchase of extra carriages, this was increased to seven. In 1998 each set was reduced to six carriages. Today XPTs operate with four carriages to Dubbo, and five on the North Coast and Melbourne services, with six during peak times.

Fleet

The XPT fleet consists of:

Power cars

XPT power cars originally powered by a Paxman Valenta 12RP200L engine with a single turbocharger. These were replaced from June 2000 by Paxman VP185 12-cylinder, diesel engines with four low-pressure turbochargers and two high-pressure turbochargers boasting 1,492 kW / 2,000 horsepower that had been successfully used by some British Rail High Speed Trains since 1994. Traction equipment was manufactured in England by Brush Traction of Loughborough.

Power cars comprise five main compartments at the platform level. At the front is the drivers' cab, followed by the clean air compartment, engine room, cooling group, and compressor room at the rear of the locomotive.

The State Rail Authority named the XP power cars after destinations that the XPT served. All nameplates have since been removed.

These were:

XP2001-XP2014 were built by Comeng, Granville with XP2015 - XP2018 built by ABB Transportation, Dandenong.

XPT power cars have dimensions of 17.30 metres long, 2.89 metres wide and 4.03 metres high. They weigh 76 tonnes with two operating on each service in a push pull arrangement.

Carriages

Carriage coding, features and numbers are as follows:

The XPT fleet is maintained at the XPT Service Centre, a purpose built depot south of Sydenham station within the confines of the Meeks Road Triangle.

Potential export sale

In 1986 agreement was reached to build a fleet of XPTs for the State Railway of Thailand. To allow it to be built to the narrower 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) gauge and retain the same fuel capacity, it was proposed to extend the power cars by 2.7 metres to 20 metres and mount them on Bo-Bo-Bo bogies. The negotiations were sufficiently advanced for the Prime Minister of Thailand to announce it on television, however the Australian Department of Trade withdrew its support at the last moment and the deal fell through.