There were huge crowds at Canberra Railway Station on this day in 1983, with people queuing to purchase specially discounted tickets on the railway.
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Tickets that would usually cost up to $140 were being sold for only $3 as a promotion to re-discover rail. In Sydney, there were queues of five thousand people at Central Station and Wynyard.
In Canberra, a queue started forming at 9am and Canberra's stationmaster, Noel Blunt said "It was incredible. We had three men out from 9 o'clock until it gradually let up at 3.30 in the afternoon"
"Canberra was allotted 600 tickets, and apart from a few spots available for a trip to Sydney on Saturday afternoon, for which we can't supply a return, they have all gone" he went on to say.
A spokesman for the State Rail Authority in Sydney said the "Re-discover rail" promo was designed to lure people back to train travel. At the time, trains only held 20 per cent of the market a figure that was likely due to the introduction of the motorcar 40 years earlier.
While the best value ticket was the return trip to Murwillumbah in north-eastern NSW with sleeping accommodation included, the most popular trips seemed to be to Sydney and the mountains.
