A couple of weeks ago, I decided to see my friend up on the Gold Coast. Instead of taking the conventional route to Brisbane and fly, I thought that a good old train trip would be a great way to get there. The tickets were marginally cheaper as well as I am a student.
The train to Casino left at 7:15am which is quite early for me but nevertheless it is better to travel during the day as it is much easier to see the scenery. Although the board will say that the first stop is Broadmeadows, it will make quite a few stops in between but that is mostly to pick up passengers.
As I have travelled on the Shinkansen throughout Japan, I was not used to the train going at a snail's pace but at least it was a great day to see what the countryside had to offer. It took around 3 hours to arrive at the first set down stop and by lunchtime, the train was only at Taree which is about 300km from Sydney.
The countryside around Dungog.
The staff on Countrylink or should I say Trainlink will take your orders around 12pm but lunch will not come for about an hour so I hope that you have some snacks on you while you wait. There were a few selections to choose from but I chose the Teriyaki Beef. If you are vegetarian, the buffet also offers a few vegetarian options such as the Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni.
When it was time to pick up my meal, it was not what I had expected but it was good enough nonetheless.The train continued its journey on time until it was about 10 minutes from Kempsey. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a Sydney bound XPT train which was 13 minutes late. I know it was not a long wait and there are much worse delays. After the delay, the train journey was pleasant passing through the North Coast towns of Kempsey, Macksville, Nambucca Heads, Urunga, Sawtell, Coffs Harbour and Grafton before arriving at Casino.
Although, there is a direct service to Brisbane on Trainlink from Sydney, it only runs once a day which is an overnight sleeper. At Casino, I had to look for the coach service that was headed for Brisbane and it was sort of confusing as there were about 5 coach services headed for different places. The coach service that I had needed was at the front so it had made it much easier to find. Additionally, it is the one that has the most passengers as well.
After leaving Casino, I had an expectation that the coach would stop at every stop en route to Brisbane but it only ended up stopping at Lismore which was great as it meant that I would arrive 20 minutes earlier into Roma St than expected.
The train trip was definitely a great way to see what the North Coast of New South Wales had to offer but I would not recommend travelling from Sydney to Brisbane in one day. If you have time to spare, it may be better to spend overnight at one of the towns on the way. Plus you would get to see what the town has to offer and be well rested the next day.
Just past Coffs Harbour
Until next time,
Laura xx
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