In Service
The first power car and trailer commenced testing with a Southern Aurora luggage van in August 1981. The initial XPT livery was red, black and orange with InterCity XPT signwriting. On a demonstration run to Albury on 6 September 1981 the XPT set a new Australian speed record of 183 km/h between Table Top and Gerogery in southern NSW, breaking that of Western Australia's 1971 Prospector railcar. On a test run to Albury on 18 September 1992 the XPT reached 193 km/h between Table Top and Yerong Creek. This record was broken by Queensland Rail's Tilt Train in May 1999.
The first full test XPT set ran in January 1982. The four sets entered service on the Central West XPT to Dubbo in April 1982, the Mid North Coast XPT to Kempsey in May 1982 and the Riverina XPT to Albury in August 1982.
In 1983 a further five power cars and 15 trailers were ordered. These allowed the Canberra XPT to commence in August 1983 followed by the Northern Tablelands XPT to Glen Innes and Tenterfield (2 times per week only) in June 1984. By tightening up the diagrams, an overnight South XPT to Albury was introduced, but cancelled in June 1985 due to low patronage. In 1985 an additional 12 trailer carriages were ordered to allow six sets of 7 carriages to be formed. From October 1985 the Mid-North Coast XPT to Kempsey ceased, being replaced by the Holiday Coast XPT to Grafton. The Northern Tablelands XPT also was cut back to Armidale and only ran 3 times per week.
Initially the XPT carried a fare surcharge compared to parallel locomotive hauled services, however this was abolished from May 1985.
Following the election of the Greiner State Government in March 1988, consultants Booz Allen Hamilton were commissioned to prepare a report into NSW rail services. On purely economic grounds, the report recommended closing all country passenger services as they were judged unviable, however this was not politically acceptable. If services were to be maintained, the report recommended operating a reduced rail service, all with XPTs.
In February 1990 the Brisbane Limited and Pacific Coast Motorail were withdrawn and replaced by XPT services to Brisbane and Murwillumbah. To provide rolling stock for these, the Canberra XPT was withdrawn and replaced by a locomotive hauled train and the Northern Tablelands Express was truncated to become a day return service to Tamworth.
In June 1990 the government announced that it would purchase a fleet of Xplorers to reintroduce services to Armidale and Moree. When these were introduced in October 1993 the Northern Tablelands XPT ceased and the stock replaced a locomotive hauled set on a service to Grafton.
In October 1990 the government announced that eight sleeper carriages would be ordered for use on overnight services to Brisbane, Murwillumbah and Melbourne. These were included in an order placed with ABB Transportation, Dandenong in 1991 for four power cars and 13 trailers that was jointly funded by the New South Wales and Victorian governments.
In November 1993 XPTs replaced locomotive hauled stock on the overnight Sydney/Melbourne Express. In December 1994 an XPT daylight service to Melbourne was introduced by extending the Riverina XPT from Albury.
In 1995 CountryLink trialled three Swedish Railways X2000 tilting train carriages. After conducting a state wide tour in March, they were used on Canberra services from April until June with modified XPT power cars XP2000 and XP2009.
With the closure of the Muwillumbah branch, the XPT service was cut back to Casino from April 2004.
Read more about this topic: Country Link XPT, History
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