A few of the NSW Members are opting to travel across to the Nationals via the Indian Pacific. I'm aware that a few people have commented around the traps that it seemed very expensive and/or that putting your car on the train is asking for trouble.
Well, it's neither.
The Indian Pacific is a great deal, and you might like to consider it amongst your options for getting to Perth and/or coming home.
The list price of a Red Class ticket (twin room with bunks, own bathroom) is $1468 ex-Sydney according to the
GSR site. Ex-Adelaide is $1114. (I didn't consider going Platinum or Gold Class - that
is expensive.)
However, if you're a member of the YHA (Youth Hostels Association), the adult "Red Class" ticket is discounted from $1468 to
$1071 (
$739 ex-Adelaide). The annual fee for YHA is $42, so do the maths
For seniors like Dad it's about $800 ex-Sydney. As long as you're sharing a red class cabin, the cost to take your car is an additional $300. So it's costing Dad and I about $2150 all up to get us and our car to Perth. We plan on driving back - just for the experience. But the drive back will definitely cost us more. Petrol alone will be $1000, before food and accommodation for two people for 5-6 nights. And Dad drinks like a fish.
That train fare does not include meals, but the prices for food on the IP are very reasonable - main meals are $13, lunches about $10. You can take a "reasonable" amount of your own food with you (ie your own breakfast cereal etc - they would probably frown on a cage of live chickens.) And it's only 3.5 days on the train, not 6 days' driving. Personally, I don't want to have
any mechanical issues or failures-to-proceed, but were one to happen, I'd rather it be on the way home than the way there: that would rather spoil the holiday...
The other really important aspect to consider is that taking your car on the IP has no weight restriction or limit on contents in the vehicle. In other words we can pack all the crap we like - clothes, car-parts, tools etc - into the car for the trip back. All the horror stories you hear about shipping cars involve freight-lines. Gary from WA says his father has shipped his car on it at least 4 times, and never had so much as a scratch. We're leaving Sydney on Wednesday, getting to Perth the Saturday prior to the Easter Weekend, to spend a week driving down to Albany and back. We'll head back home straight after the Nats.
So far there are 3 "couples" signed up. Anyway, hope this is useful information to you.
RET
