New Regional Train Fleet - Dugald Saunders - State MP for Dubbo (29th February, 2024)

The Dubbo State MP, Dougal Saunders, discusses the arrival of the first train at Dubbo's rail maintenance facility as part of the regional rail fleet upgrades. The train is one of 29 new trains that will improve timetabling and provide modern and comfortable travel options. The project has faced delays due to COVID, but most of the fleet is expected to arrive this year. The trains will undergo testing before being put into service. The new trains will have wifi, charging ports, and improved amenities. There are no plans for sleeper carriages in the new fleet. This project is a significant investment in the Dubbo region's transportation infrastructure. You're on Zoo's Breakfast. This is the vinyls at ten past eight, Zoo FM Breakfast, top of 41 in Gilgandras today, currently 26.5. Thunderstorms this afternoon. I realise that the vinyls and that song there are probably not the most appropriate choice to play just before introducing a Member of Parliament into this show. Dubbo State MP Dougal Saunders, good morning. Yeah, g'day mate, good to talk to you. Good to talk to you as well. I hear there's, or what I've sort of coined as the James Bond secret, top secret train has arrived. Yeah, it's almost a tank engine under the cover of darkness, I think, that's what I'm thinking of. What's going on with that? Yeah, look, this is a really important milestone and I'm, I guess, really delighted to see we've got the first of our series of trains to arrive at Dubbo's mid-year rail maintenance facility. It arrived apparently in the last day or so on the back of a fairly large truck and it was part of the announcement made by the former coalition government around the regional rail fleet upgrades and also the maintenance facility itself, some track improvements. And of course, this is one of 29 new trains. So the plan was originally about 117 carriages to form 29 new trains to service our regions and have the capacity to probably do better with our timetabling, given they'll have a bit more capacity for speed. But modern, comfortable, all the things we know we needed given the XPT is sort of at end of life. So the first one of those is now in the Dubbo rail maintenance facility. Not too much hoopla being created around this apart from us noticing and people sending us videos and photos of this on the way to Dubbo. So I'm surprised. I didn't even think that any of them had been built yet, but sort of what's the timeframe of all of them being, or at least a large portion being completed and delivered? Yeah, look, good question. We don't actually know anymore. Ah, yes. The project was held up, particularly during COVID. There were time delays, you know, significant ones, but one would expect during the rest of this year, most of the rest of that fleet will at some point arrive. And when they arrive, they get an initial bit of work. And the point is they're supposed to come to Dubbo, have the final fit out. And that includes lighting and seating and the final configuration of wifi and things like that, and then be ready for testing. And the testing will take quite some time to make sure they're all operating safely and efficiently. And then the trains can be put together. So look, we're still waiting for the Labour government to actually give some more detail on that timetable. But the first one being here is a good sign. It was a $2.8 billion budget that we first put forward and about 1.26 of that on the train from the maintenance facility. So it's a big injection of funding and a really good one for the Dubbo region. I understand in comparison to the XPT, they've actually got wifi and charging ports, these new trains. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, and that's part of the uplift, I guess, is just to have a modern train that people feel like they can comfortably travel in, but also do the things they wanna do, which might be streaming a movie, it might be doing a hookup for a Zoom meeting, or just doing some work comfortably and having those charging ports, the wifi, all that sort of stuff makes a massive difference to usability and workability in 2024. And in regards to the comfortability of the train, I just wanna ask, do you know if there is or ever will be plans for sleeper carriages on this new fleet? Yeah, look, I don't think there is. Now, there are still some of the older trains that you can do, say, Sydney to Melbourne on and the sleeper carriage, but I don't think there are plans for that. It isn't very well utilised, I think, was the discovery back when the new trains were being looked at. But again, I'm not 100% sure if the current government has looked at that in any different way or whether they'll keep some of the current trains rolling just to have that sleeper capacity, but certainly the new regional rail fleet, the plan wasn't to include sleepers. Well, thanks for coming on, mate. It's good to see that at least the regional rail is sort of moving into the future and now we can actually see it happening before our very eyes. Yeah, exactly. Looking forward to more of those trains arriving and a great sort of opportunity for Dubbo and the region. Thanks, Keegan. Thanks, mate. You're on Zoo's brekkie.