FED: The red carpet that never got rolled out

AAP General News (Australia)
12-02-1999
FED: The red carpet that never got rolled out

By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent

PERTH, Dec 2 AAP - At 8.23am in the Blue Mountains, first class passengers on the east-bound
Indian Pacific train would have been enjoying the final silver-service breakfast of their
epic journey across the continent.

Today, that breakfast came to a shuddering halt.

In Perth it was 5.23am. Railroad staff were rising to roll out the red carpet as the
west-bound Indian Pacific headed in for a lobster and champagne reception ahead of the
service's 30th birthday.

The party, similar to receptions in Sydney and Adelaide on the way over, was cancelled.

The red carpet stayed under wraps, and the champagne stayed on ice.

In Adelaide it was 7.53am. Stephen Bradford, chief executive of the Great Southern
Railway, was about to step onto a Perth-bound plane to officiate at the reception.

He cancelled his flight.

The crash near Glenbrook which claimed six lives brought to a tragically premature
end one of the great railway journeys of the world.

Many of the Indian Pacific's 159 Sydney-bound passengers would have travelled all the
way from Perth.

The 65-hour journey covers an astonishing 4,352 kms from coast to coast.

Passengers watch an entire continent unfold as they head out over the West Australian
wheatbelt to the Kalgoorlie goldfields, cross the vast Nullarbor Plain and the grain fields
of South Australia, then the barren scrub of western New South Wales before entering lush
farmland and rolling hills.

The Nullarbor crossing includes the longest stretch of straight rail track in the world
- over 470 kms.

The point of impact came at the most scenic section of their trip.

Indian Pacific passengers would have been enjoying the stark beauty of the Blue Mountains
as they finished breakfast and prepared for arrival in Sydney.

Motorail cars and a power van at the rear of the 500 metre-long train appear to have
taken the brunt of the smash.

First-class passengers probably felt the greatest impact as they dined on cereals,
fruits, bacon, eggs and coffee in the padded seats of their dusky pink restaurant car.

With fresh flowers on their tables and old-world ambience all around, the scenery
drifted by windows adorned by delicate filigreed scrolls.

It was amid such romance, opulence and grandeur that disaster struck.

AAP dc/it

KEYWORD: TRAIN JOURNEY

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