http://www.queenslandrailtravel.com.au/RailServices/Pages/Tilt%20Train%20Maintenance.aspx
This is an interesting piece of a puzzle I'd wondered about for some time. Queensland Rail had pulled the Sunlander (which I missed out on taking) in favor of the tilt trains and I'd wondered about them pulling it since they seemed to be able to sell some luxury-ish sleeper spaces at decent enough rates for their side of things. If I had to guess, given that they went into this maintenance cycle only a few months later, it seems that they didn't have the coaches to support both the Sunlander and the backstop diesel services. If nothing else, this makes that withdrawal make a lot of sense (since the tilt train cycle is likely to take most of a year and there probably wasn't the political will or the math to support an all-sleeper train).
With that being said...I still can't figure out QR's slightly insane equipment shuffling. There's at least one case in their timetable with the Rockhampton/Bundaberg service where they have a train which terminates in one city but has to originate in the other (there are 12 round-trips per week to Bundaberg...but only 6 trains terminate in Rockhampton while 7 originate there, and 6 terminate in Bundaberg but 5 originate there).
This is an interesting piece of a puzzle I'd wondered about for some time. Queensland Rail had pulled the Sunlander (which I missed out on taking) in favor of the tilt trains and I'd wondered about them pulling it since they seemed to be able to sell some luxury-ish sleeper spaces at decent enough rates for their side of things. If I had to guess, given that they went into this maintenance cycle only a few months later, it seems that they didn't have the coaches to support both the Sunlander and the backstop diesel services. If nothing else, this makes that withdrawal make a lot of sense (since the tilt train cycle is likely to take most of a year and there probably wasn't the political will or the math to support an all-sleeper train).
With that being said...I still can't figure out QR's slightly insane equipment shuffling. There's at least one case in their timetable with the Rockhampton/Bundaberg service where they have a train which terminates in one city but has to originate in the other (there are 12 round-trips per week to Bundaberg...but only 6 trains terminate in Rockhampton while 7 originate there, and 6 terminate in Bundaberg but 5 originate there).
