Railway Digest Magazine April 2021 Back Issue

V/Line 2021 Operations Review
A Victorian State Government entity, V/Line operates both rail and bus services around the State, as well as some extensions into New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT. Its passenger loadings have been rapidly increasing over several years, with patronage roughly tripling between 2004 and 2019. Much of that increase has occurred on the ‘commuter’ lines, particularly the Geelong and Ballarat corridors. With the introduction of new timetable in late January this year, David Campbell took the opportunity to review the current operations of V/Line.

TasRail 2021
This year, Tasmanian Railways celebrated its 150th anniversary, and in the first instalment of a two-part series, renowned rail historian Melanie Dennis takes a detailed look at TasRail in the modern era, following on from her previous articles that appeared in the February and March issues of our sister magazine, Australian Railway History.

Curtains on Sydney Trains’ C Sets
With Sydney Trains’ 28 February timetable update seeing additional B Set Waratah trains added into the roster, the agency took the opportunity to prune the 56-car C Set suburban electric fleet from its operations after a 35-year career. Known as the ‘Chopper’ cars, due to the pioneering use of more efficient thyristor step-less or ‘chopper’ controlled power, their technical excellence generally failed to impress the travelling public, who had to endure fixed seating with an almost vertical backrest. Chris Walters travelled on the farewell tour on Saturday 6 March and penned this tribute to the ‘Chopper Cars’.

Fifty years of Amtrak
In our ‘International’ pages this month, Ken Date reports on 50th Anniversary of Amtrak, America’s National Railroad Passenger Corporation. An anniversary that, 50 years ago, some pundits believed would never happen!