DAM TRAINS

I've had my latest travel idea. I'll admit that these usually don't 
amount to anything. I never made the commitment of changing my 
sleep habits for my night driving idea, plus it involved quite a 
risk of hitting wildlife on the roads. I've also been thinking of 
buying a 4x4 with room in the back to set up a bed, and there's 
actually one vaguely affordable old Land Cruiser Troop Carrier for 
sale nearby, but it's got rust and I really don't need all the work 
(plus registration cost) of keeping another old 80s vehicle on the 
road, although there are some places in the outback that I really 
would like to make it to one day. I'd have to get my 
mouse/weather-proof elevated Jag garage built before I've got a 
place under cover to park it anyway.

But how about going all old-fashioned and doing train journeys? 
It's actually coming up to four years since I last traveled on a 
train, since my annual train trips to Melbourne stopped due to the 
pandemic. Facinatingly alien as the big city is, it would be nice 
to sample that experience with a rural destination instead of 
ending up in a place that's fundamentally uncomfortable for me. But 
really the main driver of this idea is purely financial. Those 
train fares to go to Melbourne were barely cheaper than the cost of 
petrol if you drove yourself (well at least for people who drive a 
sensible car), and they were going up by about $5 each year for 
that same return trip. Now though, thanks to campaign promise 
competition between the major paries at the last state election 
(most of the passenger rail network in Victoria (Australia) is 
state owned), you can apparantly get a day's travel Victoria-wide 
for a fixed fare of just $9.20! That's compared with return fares 
before that went up to $92!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-09/train-v-line-fares-fares-reduced-march-31-regional-vic/101837828

Of course the catch is that there's not actually much left of the 
passenger rail network, especially compared to in the 1930s when 
the rail maps were practically machine-gunned with railway station 
dots (I have a railway map from the 1930s, of course). Plus now if 
I want to change lines the only way to go is into Melbourne and 
then out again, because rural inter-connecting lines are all either 
gone or freight-only. Still, $9.20! For the the saving I'd make
compared to the fuel cost of driving, I could pay for accomodation,
which is something I still haven't stretched to during my road
trips. Really that's more about a personal adversion to the whole
idea of paid accomodation, but I've been planning to break that for
a while anyway.

So, following one of my successful travel themes, I spent a couple 
of hours today working out which dams and water reservoirs are 
within walking range of train stations. Unsurprisingly this is 
pretty tough, and there are some frustrating near misses, but I did 
find seven overall, counting a couple of big lakes. They're all 
outside of my usual day-tip driving range too.

Of course what I wouldn't get is the fun of driving around in the 
Jag, but it does mean that I don't need to worry about busy roads. 
Actually the whole trip planning process is turned on its head. 
Normally I spend all my preparation time plotting interesting 
routes through forgotten (and often falling apart) back roads, then 
have only a vague guess of how long it will take (another reason I 
worry about accomodation). With the train, the route is set out for 
me (at least it is given that the network is so limited), and I 
know exactly when I'll get there. Or do I? Actually now I remember 
that last train I took into Melbourne four years ago was fourty 
minutes late! Oh well, it's the idea anyway.

Thus it's a matter of deciding where and when I want to go, then 
seeing whether I can make the time tables match up so that I can 
get off at reservoirs along the route and yet still find a place to 
stay for the night before/during the return trip. Compared to my 
road trips it's basically an eqivalent technical challenge with an 
equivalent potential for complete disaster, so great!

There's also the potential for me to actually do things during the 
trip, seeing as I'm not spending my time driving or worn out from 
driving (though possibly more worn out from walking instead). I'd 
need to pack  light so that I can carry my stuff around at 
intermediate revervoir stops, but maybe that ASUS ee(how many "e"s 
were there?)PC would be good for this? I tested it out properly a 
while ago and it actually does work, someone's just wiped its 
little SSD. I could even work on one of my software projects during 
the trip. It's got dead batteries though, and I've never seen a 
power outlet on Victorian trains like they seem to show in movies 
(or maybe that's because I always travel second class? I wonder 
what first class costs now...).

OK I'm over-thinking it, I guess I should just take a book, and 
even reading that will probably give me motion sickness (that's a 
sure thing for me reading/watching anything in a moving car, on a 
train it's borderline).

Heading off to the other side of the state would be a fun start, on 
the line that (now) ends in Bairnsdale. A web search for 
accomodation brings up a page claiming rooms from $15! But the 
cheapest there turns out to be $90 a night, and the page also says 
that all the hotels/motels are located over 30Km from Bairnsdale 
city centre! Bairnsdale's definately not that big! I guess I've got 
a ways to go with working out how to find accomodation in the 
modern ago (my parents used to use booklets that the motel 
franchises sent out, but I guess that doesn't happen anymore). 
Options could be worse though, one of the pages that DuckDuckGo 
picked up in its results was "Bairnsdale Magistrates' Court list, 
Wednesday, May 10". Now that's _not_ the sort of accomodation I'm 
looking for! Well hey, I guess at least prison's cheap.

 - The Free Thinker