There were huge crowds at Canberra Railway Station on this day in 1983, with people queuing to purchase specially discounted tickets on the railway. 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. See: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/14526670
There were huge crowds at Canberra Railway Station on this day in 1983, with people queuing to purchase specially discounted tickets on the railway.
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.
