The Grafton Express is an Australian passenger train operated by NSW TrainLink between Sydney and Grafton via the North Coast line.

In February 1990, the long-standing Holiday Coast XPT was axed as part of a restructure of CountryLink services.[1] With the other XPT services struggling to keep up with weekend demand, in June 1990 a service to Grafton was reinstated.[2] It ran on Fridays only to Grafton and Sundays only to Sydney[3] but during school holidays ran daily. It was formed of locomotive hauled HUB/RUB stock with the headcode NL35/NL36.[4]

Initially hauled by 86 class electric locomotives south of Broadmeadow, however from March 1992 it was hauled by diesel locomotives throughout usually a 442 class. The locomotive hauled Grafton Express last ran in November 1993.[4]

With the National Party having lost a number of North Coast seats in the 1990 Federal election in a policy reversal it was announced that Xplorer railcars would be purchased to extend the Northern Tablelands Express with an XPT to be released to operate a daily service to Grafton.[5] Thus in November 1993 the Grafton XPT began, a service that continues today.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ "The New Timetable" Railway Digest March 1990 page 94
  2. ^ "North Coast Daylight to start this month" Railway Digest May 1990 page 168
  3. ^ "New train set to run" Railway Digest June 1990 page 208
  4. ^ a b "An Obituary to the Grafton Express" Railway Digest January 1994 page 34
  5. ^ "New "Explorer" trains for NSW" Railway Digest July 1990 page 237
  6. ^ "Intercapital services". Railpage. 18 November 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  7. ^ "North Coast timetable". NSW TrainLink. 7 September 2019.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafton_Express
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