‘Sad goodbye’: End of era for workhorse of NSW railways

The last V-set passenger train service to Newcastle will pull out of Sydney’s Central Station at 9.20pm on Friday, marking the end of an era that has spanned more than five decades.

Known by commuters for their purple-coloured seats, the workhorses of NSW’s railways have been running on the line from Sydney to the Central Coast and Newcastle since June 1970.

Pushed to the limit of their working lives, the double-deck V-sets will finally be completely replaced on the line by the long-delayed new Mariyung train fleet, which has cost taxpayers more than $4 billion.

Ben Heavey, 23, long aspired to become a driver of passenger trains including the V-sets.Credit: Sam Mooy

Train driver Ben Heavey, 23, said it would be a “sad goodbye” when a V-set makes the last run between Sydney and Newcastle on Friday night.

“But we’ll be moving forward for our passengers with better safety and access for our disabled people,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think people will learn to love the Mariyung.”

The new intercity trains have extra legroom, high seat backs, tray tables for laptops and charging ports for mobile devices.

Heavey, who has had a passion for trains since he was a kid growing up in Macquarie Fields, started as a cleaner on the railways at the age of 18 after leaving school. Within eight months he was a guard, before switching 18 months later to become a driver of V-sets and newer train types.

Now also training drivers, Heavey found it more rewarding to complete a long-distance trip driving a V-set because they required greater focus. “You feel like you have to use your brain more,” he said.

Sydney Trains acting service delivery director Leisa Case said the V-sets had been a workhorse for the railways for more than five decades but the amount of maintenance required on them was escalating, and parts harder to come by.

“They’ll never be forgotten. They’re a comfortable, beautiful train to travel in but the trains that we’ve got in service now – the Mariyung trains – are our future,” she said.

“There’s always that transition when you bring a new train into service. But I think [passengers will] see the benefits that these new trains can offer, compared to trains that are 40 to 50 years old today.”

Case, who has worked on the railways for 28 years, said the comfortable, purple-coloured seats were what commuters best knew the V-set trains for.

“The seats inside are like a big, old, comfy lounge chair,” she said.

She expected the final service to Newcastle on Friday to be “very nostalgic” because it was the rail line that the 21-strong V-set fleet was first introduced on after they built.

They will continue to run on the Sydney-Blue Mountains line before they are progressively replaced by the new Mariyung trains from the second half of this year – five years later than originally planned. The rollout of the new trains is expected to begin on the South Coast line to the Illawarra in 2026.

The V-sets were built in Granville by Commonwealth Engineering – known as Comeng – between 1970 and 1989, and were described as “the most luxurious commuter stock in the world” when they rolled onto the tracks.

Transport Minister John Graham said the V-set trains were “space age for their time”, and their final trip between Sydney and Newcastle was a moment to thank the workers who built them in Sydney.

“In farewelling the V-sets, we reaffirm our commitment as a government to rebuilding a local rail manufacturing industry here in NSW,” he said.

The government has committed to start procuring replacements for the ageing Tangara fleet of suburban passenger trains by 2027. It has a 50 per cent local content target for designing, building and maintaining the new fleet.

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