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.
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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.
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“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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