Popping up to QLD to ride the Spirit of Queensland RailBed

[encryptededdy]

Day 1 - Cairns
QF922 Sydney to Cairns departing 09:35 (Upgraded to Business Class on Points)
45min Helicopter Reef + Rainforest tour at 14:00 with Nautilus Aviation
Night at the DoubleTree Cairns

Day 2 - Train
Spirit of Queensland RailBed, departing Cairns at 08:35

Day 3 - Brisbane
Train arrives Brisbane at 09:20 (25 hours travel time)
Night at Holiday Inn Express Brisbane Central

Day 4 - Brisbane
QF557 Brisbane to Sydney departing 19:10 (Economy)

I'm basically coming up to Queensland solely to try the RailBed. At $380 per person and 25 hours, I'm absolutely taking this for the novelty of it (I do love sleeper trains) as opposed to anything else, given I could get from CNS to BNE for $299 in Business with VA or 27,600 Qantas points in under two hours.

It's quite sad that other than Journey Beyond's Indian Pacific, there's only one sleeper train option from Sydney, the XPT Sleeper, which is very poor.

 

[encryptededdy]

Day 1;

The terminal was surprisingly busy at SYD, given it was a Thursday Morning. I had originally booked this flight as an A330 flight, which is why I upgraded to Business. Unfortunately, QF swapped this out a week or two ago to a 737.




Sitting in 1A was mildly interesting, given I hadn't done so before.



Food onboard was an... alright Quiche. I asked for Ginger Beer, there was none

Also, I don't know if it's just me, but every time I've been in a 737 J seat with these lever style seat controls, none of them has ever worked. Am I just too dumb to figure them out, or are they just all broken?

Had an awesome 45 minute Reef + Rainforest scenic flight with Nautilus Aviation. Didn't take that many pictures, but here's a few;




Since the airport wasn't busy, ATC let us fly directly over CNS, including the Runway, which was quite cool.


Here's an unmarked C-130 parked there for some reason.



The Hilton Doubletree Cairns was also solidly... passable. Given it was cheap-ish ($150/n) and in a good location, I didn't really mind, however it's definitely quite dated. The TV was about the same size as the screen in Business Class on the Cathay Pacific A350.

 

[encryptededdy]

Day 2;

Got on the Spirit of Queensland, departing Cairns at 8:35am.


The railbeds are in a 2-1 configuration, with relatively wide seats and plenty of legroom. The seats are pretty good but I definitely have some complaints. I think the best description of these seats are that they're "Air New Zealand Business Class Style". That is to say, they...
1. Can only be turned into a bed by flipping the whole thing over (i.e. the back of the seats folds down flat to form the bed). Only the cabin attendant can do this, you can't do this yourself. A bit annoying if you want to nap during the day then sit up again.
2. As a result of the above, they have an ok amount of recline, but no more than say your usual business class recliner. They don't recline to 45 degrees or anything like that as you may expect from a "lay flat" seat
3. There's no storage
Additionally, there's another downside in that you can't get out while the tray table is deployed, which is made more annoying by the fact that the seat has no storage.

Other than those complaints though, the seat is relatively comfortable when sitting up straight or with a slight recline.

As for food, here's a picture of my Morning Tea, Lunch, and Dinner;



There were two items to choose from for Lunch and Dinner. The meals are pretty good, but they are (imo) akin to probably a premium-economy-ish meal on a good airline. Ceramic trays though.

As for the rest of the train, here's the dining car and shower;


I was quite impressed with the size of the shower, although this picture is of the bigger of the two showers onboard the train.

Going to go to sleep abord the train now, will leave an update tomorrow on how the sleeping experience is. I do look forward to not having my feet in a tunnel (one of the few benefits of the AirNZ seat), and the fact that the bed is relatively wide (fixing one of the downsides of the AirNZ bed).

 

[bam71]

How was the sleep?

 

[Mwenenzi]

Off topic
The large aircraft at CNS is a Short Belfast (ex RAF).
Make an offer: it could be yours!
Wikipedia Short Belfast

in Australia and is the subject of a legal dispute for fees between the airport and the current owner of the aircraft, Flying Tigers.[citation needed]
<snip>
One aircraft was refurbished and flown to Australia in 2003, operated by HeavyLift Cargo Airlines. This aircraft is no longer flying; it was often visible parked on the General Aviation side of Cairns International Airport in Queensland,

 

[encryptededdy]

Day 3;

Cabin Attendant folding down the bed


The bed in bed mode

I actually had a very nice sleep on the Train. I suppose the upside of flipping upside down for bed mode is that you can have a proper flat mattress with no bumps or crevices. There were three things worth noting though.
1. The cabin was (for me) uncomfortably warm. Like, asian airline-tier. Unfortunately no individual air nozzles so RIP
2. The bed is an ample width, but only barely long enough for me (182cm). My feet were touching the back of the seat in front
3. No storage comes to bite me again. I had nowhere to safely store my glasses when I slept, and I had nowhere to put my e-reader when I slept.


Breakfast was probably the most disappointing meal of the 3. Very much an economy class meal, and not even on a good airline.

My overall impression was that while I did have lots of things to pick out with the seat and to a lesser extent the food, none of them are deal breakers and the service was great, and the shower + bed really did offer a good night's sleep.

Of course, I've already stated the issue with the "value" of this service considering its cost being higher compared to a VA Business Flight, but I can see a few cases where it might work out...

1. If you're joining from or going to a town in the middle of the route, and you're going in the direction where you're sleeping most of the time. Then, you're on the train for ~12 hours instead of my 25, and you get to sleep most of the time. I would not recommend the railbed if you're sitting in it for 12 hours during the day. The seat is not a massive improvement over the Spirit of Queensland "Premium Economy" product for that purpose. Yeah you get practically unlimited legroom but that doesn't really get you much.
2. If you're very time rich in your travels, and you can value in the 1 nights "free" accommodation you get here
3. If you just like trains (like me)

Also I found out upon arriving in Brisbane that a long distance train ticket grants me a free ride on QR's suburban rail in Brisbane to anywhere except the Airport. My Hotel was near Central anyway so I used this perk to travel exactly 1 stop from Roma Street to Brisbane Central.



Holiday Inn Brisbane is pretty nice considering the price. It's all new-ish and they have the good type of automatic hand sanitizer dispenser (the spray ones). Sadly the Chromecast implementation on the TV is kinda coughpy and doesn't let you cast YouTube, which is quite dumb since that's the only reason why I'd want the TV to support Chromecast. The Chromecast implementation on the TV when I stayed at the Hyatt Centric Melbourne was quite nice.

 

[encryptededdy]

Off topic
The large aircraft at CNS is a Short Belfast (ex RAF).
Make an offer: it could be yours!
Wikipedia Short Belfast

This... makes a lot of sense. The plane looked ever so slightly off to be a C130.

 

[AIRwin]

Also I found out upon arriving in Brisbane that a long distance train ticket grants me a free ride on QR's suburban rail in Brisbane to anywhere except the Airport.

Good to know as I recently travelled on a long distance train ticket but due to train/track maintenance it was a replacement coach service so it wasn't apparent when I arrived at Roma Street...

 

[encryptededdy]

Good to know as I recently travelled on a long distance train ticket but due to train/track maintenance it was a replacement coach service so it wasn't apparent when I arrived at Roma Street...

Here's the information if you need it: Fare Types

All customers receive a complimentary connecting journey onboard Queensland Rail City network service with every ticket purchase. (Please note: this does not include the Airtrain service to or from the Brisbane Airport). You must be able to show a printed long distance ticket or download the ticket to your mobile device for inspection by a Queensland Rail team member for City Network travel. Please check the Translink website to plan a suitable City Network connection.

 

[AIRwin]

Here's the information if you need it: Fare Types

Thanks! I didn't end up paying for my connecting suburban train anyway as I'd arrived Roma Street in the early hours of New Year's Day when there was free travel as part of the festivities...

 

[encryptededdy]

Nothing to share for Day 4, other than the fact that our return flight was on Retro Roo II (and not Jetbridge at BNE? Not sure if this is usual. Not complaining though, got these nice photos.)

 

[FishFood]

Great trip report, it seems an almost carbon copy of a trip I took in November last year. Even staying in the same hotel in Cairns - Double Tree.

This august, I'll be back to QLD for the Spirit of the Outback, then eventually I'll tick off the rest of the QR routes over the next few years

 

[Inlander]

If you book far enough in advance , QR have a discounted ticket range called the "BQUICK" . From Cairns to Brisbane a rail bed is around $130 cheaper than the standard "ACHOICE" range.They have their online booking site working now:

Queensland Rail Travel

queenslandrailtravel-booking.opendestinations.com

 

[Bundy Bear]

Thanks for the trip report, funny that this should pop up now, today I was meant to be traveling from Cairns to Brisbane on the rail sleeper service, it was cancelled yesterday.
Lucky I was able to redeem some Qantas points to fly on Jetstar.

The option waa a bus from Cairns to Rockhampton then train rest of the way, screw that.

 

[FishFood]

If you book far enough in advance , QR have a discounted ticket range called the "BQUICK" . From Cairns to Brisbane a rail bed is around $130 cheaper than the standard "ACHOICE" range.They have their online booking site working now:

Queensland Rail Travel

queenslandrailtravel-booking.opendestinations.com

If I remember you don't have to book that far in advance to get the BQUICK fares, that has been the case for all the fares I've booked so far

 

[Inlander]

If I remember you don't have to book that far in advance to get the BQUICK fares, that has been the case for all the fares I've booked so far

Yes indeed that's so, you just have to be careful in the heavier tourist months May- end of September as they tend to book the trains up really well in that period. They also do a two for one on the western trains during the hot months January - March.