The state’s refreshed intercity fleet is comfortable, but won’t get you from Sydney to Newcastle any quicker than steam trains did a century ago
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The new Mariyung fleet that entered service in New South Wales this week is the first refresh of the state’s intercity trains in almost two decades.
The rolling stock update cost more than $4bn and the trains arrived in the state in 2019. But their debut on routes such as Sydney-Newcastle, and soon on the Blue Mountains and South Coast lines, was delayed by five years due to a number of issues, including concerns they were too wide, technical disputes and modification works demanded by unions that cost $1bn.