Broken Hill Xplorer

The train at Broken Hill. (Photo: Machomme, CC BY-SA 4.0)

NSW TrainLink operates many train (and coach) routes throughout New South Wales. However, the state's longest passenger rail line, the Broken Hill Xplorer (sometimes also called the Outback Xplorer) is probably the most memorable. The line to Broken Hill beats out both the Melbourne and Brisbane XPT services in terms of distance and passes through some remarkable landscapes – and for a reasonable price compared to many other Outback passenger railways.

Understand

History

Passenger trains have linked Sydney and Broken Hill since the 20th century – before then, Broken Hill was only connected to South Australia by rail, connected via a narrow-gauge line to the border. The rail connection to South Australia was by and large, the prime reason why Broken Hill operates 30 minutes behind the rest of New South Wales.

Although a link to Menindee was constructed in 1919, it was only in 1927 when the railway was completely constructed all the way to Sydney. Regular passenger services commenced in 1937 with the introduction of the Silver City Comet, providing thrice-weekly connections to Parkes and a timed transfer to meet with the train from Sydney.

The 1980s was a rough time for many of New South Wales' regional railways, and the Broken Hill Line was no exception. The Silver City Comet was due to be retired; as it was retired in 1989, it was replaced by road coaches. To this day, those train-replacement coaches are why Broken Hill receives a daily coach service from Dubbo. The Silver City Comet can be found today at the Sulphide St Rail Museum in Broken Hill.

One of the election promises by Bob Carr before becoming the New South Wales premier in 1995 was to restore direct service to Broken Hill. This was later fulfilled in 1996 using a loco-hauled service, but that wasn't without its own issues. The condition of the carriages had become so bad that services had to cease in April 2000, later replaced by the Xplorer railcars, which are diesel multiple units (DMU), which still operate to this day as of 2025.

As part of the New South Wales Regional Rail Fleet program, the Xplorers are bound to be replaced with the "New Regional Fleet" (NRF), a set of bimodal trains running on both electricity and diesel, which aims to overhaul all of the diesel sets used in the state. These were supposed to enter service around 2023 but have been delayed with no set timeframe. Some documents indicate that the Broken Hill service could potentially be coupled with the daily Central West service to Dubbo, decoupling at Orange.

Xplorer railcars

The Xplorer is a diesel multiple unit (DMU), designed for long-distance regional daytime travel in New South Wales (also used for Canberra, Armidale, Moree and Griffith). On the Broken Hill Line, they consist of three cars, with two for economy and one for first class. Interiors are fully air-conditioned and equipped with reclining seats, fold-down tray tables, reading lights, and large panoramic windows for enjoying the scenery. These were built by ABB Transportation in Dandenong, Victoria, and were designed to replace the then aging locomotive-hauled stock on lines that hadn't closed.

Onboard amenities include accessible toilets, overhead and luggage-rack storage, and a buffet area serving light meals, snacks, and drinks.

Timetable

All times are in New South Wales time (AEST); note that Broken Hill is 30 minutes behind the rest of New South Wales (CST). There is no change to the timetable during daylight savings time. As of Aug 2025.

Visitor information

• transportnsw.info
• NSW TrainLink bookings

Prepare

Tickets

Tickets can be booked on the NSW TrainLink website. Make sure you enter "Broken Hill Station" and not Broken Hill Town Coach Stop, which will only give coach options.

Ticket prices are as follows, as of 2025, from Sydney Central Station to Broken Hill Station. The peak and off-peak dates can be found on the NSW TrainLink website, though as a general rule of thumb, align with NSW school holidays as well as state and federal public holidays.

Baggage

As per NSW Trainlink's luggage policy, how much you can bring per person depends on the class of ticket you have.

Regardless of the ticket class, large luggage may not exceed 600 mm x 700 mm x 500 mm. It may also not exceed 20 kg (44 lb). If you're in economy, you may bring only one piece of large luggage; you can bring two pieces of luggage in first class, however. In addition, you may also bring one piece of hand luggage weighing no more than 10 kg (22 lb) and no larger than 300 mm x 500 mm x 300 mm.

Direction

Most non-residents of Broken Hill only use the train in one direction for good reason – the train gets into Broken Hill on the Monday and immediately returns back on Tuesday, leaving no time to explore the town of Broken Hill.

If you are fully flexible and are not time-constrained by any means, this will differ by which end of the journey you want to see daylight. During winter, travelling westbound will mean that everything after Darnick will be dark, missing out on Menindee Lakes; travelling eastbound will mean that the Blue Mountains will be dark; however, that is a section of track easily doable from Sydney. During spring and autumn, travelling westbound means you will get to enjoy a nice sunset over the Menindee Lakes, though it will mean the final section into Broken Hill will be dark. During summer, daylight won't matter so much as the sun will be shining for all 13 hours.

Get in

See Sydney § Get in or Broken Hill § Get in for how to get to either end of the line.

From Adelaide, it's possible to leave on the Sunday and arrive in Broken Hill on the Monday – one day should be enough to explore most of the town reasonably. Then on Tuesday morning, take the train out to Sydney.

From Sydney, the daily Dubbo XPT and Broken Hill coach (which takes about 17 hours in total) can get you to Broken Hill without the need to fly in.

Route

Route diagram of the Broken Hill XPL. (Photo: SHB2000, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Suburban Sydney and the Blue Mountains

An XPL at Central. (Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The service starts at Central (0 km), but also makes pick up stops at

• Strathfield (12 km), Parramatta (23 km) and Penrith (50 km). This section of the trip is perhaps like taking any ordinary train through a suburban area, though one thing you'll probably notice is that the train will go much faster than a suburban train on the same tracks. Enjoy your momentary fast speeds as the next four hours past Penrith will be a struggle up slow and windy tracks – all the way until Parkes.

Once you pass Emu Plains, the last suburban stop on the Sydney Trains network (note that the Broken Hill XPL does not stop there), you reach the foot of the Blue Mountains. This is where the journey starts to get real slow mostly averaging only around 50 km/h. However, the scenery starts to get much nicer onwards from here; the view up the mountains is definitely worth a look.

One hour after leaving the base of the mountains, you'll reach Katoomba (110 km) – perhaps the centre of the upper Blue Mountains and one of the few stations in the entire state over 1000 m in elevation. The train speeds up slightly past Katoomba and the scenery tends to be a lot better the further out you go. 40 minutes later, you'll reach Lithgow (153 km), the very end of the electrified rail network. Before you reach Lithgow, you'll pass Ten Tunnels Deviation – which, as its name suggests, is 10 dual-track tunnels. The reason for so many tunnels was to bypass the former Zig Zag Railway, which quite literally was a zig zag railway. You should be able to see the viaduct on your right right before you reach the station.

All stations between Central and Lithgow inclusive are pick-up/set-down only – you cannot use the Broken Hill Xplorer to travel between Lithgow and Central.

Main West Line through the Central West

Xplorer at Bathurst Station. (Photo: BeauGiles, CC BY 2.0)

Past Lithgow, the scenery gets much drier and a lot less green. You'll also notice the train starts to speed up by quite a considerable margin and this should come out as no surprise – the geography is considerably flatter. The first thing you'll probably notice is the disused Wallerawang Junction Station, which sits where the Main West and Gwabegar Lines split off. There's nothing super eventful here other than the old historic building. It was closed since the late 1980s but work has begun to reopen the station on the Blue Mountains Line and as a request stop on the Dubbo XPT. Along the way you'll also see Rydal and Tarana, but once again, the train does not stop at either of these stations, which are mainly served by the Blue Mountains Line and Dubbo XPT.

After a little over an hour, you'll reach Bathurst (229 km), one of three major regional centres in the Central West. A decent portion of the train will empty up from here. It'll become the last urban section of track you'll see for a while (in either direction) as most of the scenery progressively becomes farmland.

Once you leave Bathurst, the track once again becomes windy. It's another 40-minute ride until you reach Blayney (290 km). Along the line, you'll see another abandoned station, Newbridge; blink and you'll miss it completely. Unlike Wallerawang, there are no official plans to reopen the station anytime soon, but the signs do still remain as-is.

After Blayney, the track straightens up once again. If you were on an XPT, you'd be able to do 150 km/h from here onwards to Orange; however, Xplorers are limited to 145 km/h and the service doesn't exactly reach full speed. Around halfway through, you'll pass by Millthorpe, a heritage town of a little over a thousand; the station was only reopened in 2019 (relatively recent considering most other stations are over a century old) and now is a request stop on the Dubbo XPT – the Broken Hill XPL flies straight by, however.

A few minutes after passing Millthorpe, the Broken Hill XPL makes its final Main Western Line stop at Orange (323 km). The train dwells at Orange for a fair bit; this will also be the last regional city and transport hub before Broken Hill (Parkes is not nearly as big of a hub).

Broken Hill Line

Ivanhoe Station (Photo: Mattinbgn, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Once you've passed Orange is where it really starts to show that the train is somewhat also catered for tourists where you get an Indian Pacific-lite experience. The train stops at several stations (it can vary, but usually Ivanhoe and Parkes) from here onwards for roughly 5–10 minutes and you're encouraged to get out and stretch your legs for a bit. No tours or anything, but you can walk around and explore some of the stations and maybe take some train photos.

After winding its way around Molong (which has an abandoned heritage railway station) and Manildra, the train makes a stop at Parkes (446 km). Parkes will be the last sizable town you'll encounter from here onwards. Once you arrive at Parkes, most likely you'll be allowed to get out and stretch your legs for a bit, but be prompt and listen for the whistle, as NSW TrainLink has been known to leave passengers stranded at Parkes before.

As you leave Parkes, you will cross the tracks of both the Parkes–Narromine Railway Line and the Stockinbingal–Parkes Railway Line, both of which are north-south rail lines in and out of Parkes, forming a part of what will be Inland Rail – a freight line between Melbourne and Brisbane. Around the railway junction is also where an intermodal terminal sits place. This is also when the track speeds reach fast speeds, slowly increasing up to 145 km/h (90 mph).

Around Bogan Gate, to the north, will be the Tottenham Railway Line, the branch railway still in use for the rest of the journey.

Condobolin (546 km), at the end of Henry Parkes Way, will soon come by. Being situated at the end of Henry Parkes Way not only means it is the end of the highway, but this is when the railway line will no longer parallel any major road for the next 400 km. Euabalong West (619 km) will be the next stop afterwards; very little in between those two stops, however.

After Euabalong West is where you'll notice a significant change in scenery – what used to be dry but still with some bits of green will turn fully dry and orange. Emus will also be a lot more noticeable. It's truly barren country.

Almost 200 km later, you'll reach Ivanhoe (816 km), one of the only towns along the B75 Cobb Highway, though the station is about 3 km south of the town proper (with no public transit link). It's very likely that you'll be let out here once again to stretch your legs – unlike Parkes, though, NSW TrainLink is far less likely to strand you at Ivanhoe, but do still listen out for the whistle.

On the western fringe of Ivanhoe's boundaries is Darnick (881 km), a station popularly ridiculed by many NSW-based transport enthusiasts and for good reason – blink and it's gone. It is the only request stop (i.e., the train will only stop if passengers are booked to get on/off) on the line in the middle of barren country and no supporting town. 2023 data indicated that Darnick received 1/18 daily passengers, or in other words, 1 passenger every 18 days – or about one passenger every 2–3 weeks. This also makes it the least used train station still used on the New South Wales rail network.

The second final stop on the line will be Menindee (1006 km) – this marks the end of almost 400 km of not paralleling any decent road. The town itself might look dead, but what you will see past the station are the Menindee Lakes which form part of Kinchega National Park. When travelling towards Broken Hill, it is very likely that you will experience a nice sunset over the Menindee Lakes (unless it's summer) – a perfect way to slowly close off the day after spending 12 hours on a train!

One hour later and as the train starts to slow down, winding through some of the hills – if there's still daylight, you'll see some very large open cut mines and some very long mining trains, indicating that you'll arrive at Broken Hill (1124 km), the final station on the line. And now you'd have crossed the state from east to west, wrapping up a 13-hour-long train journey.

Onboard

Economy carriage. (Photo: Abesty, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Broken Hill Xplorers consist of three cars – the car closest to Broken Hill will be the first class car, while the other two cars closer to Sydney are the economy cars. All three cars have luggage racks on either end of the train, two toilets and overhead luggage compartments.

The buffet car is in the first class section – it's not very large, nor is the range of food very large either. Most of it is either microwaved onboard or packaged. Around both lunch and dinner, a customer service attendant will come around and ask if you want any hot meals (which vary by day), which usually cost $12–15. Otherwise snacks, sandwiches, tea and coffee are available all day, except for short intervals and near the start and end of the journey.

The difference between first class and economy is not that great, with the main difference being a slightly better recline and the choice of passengers surrounding you being considerably better in first class. If you value a quieter journey, it is well worth the extra price – and if you are on any type of concession, the first class usually makes up for a free upgrade from the normal adult fare.

Stay safe

The train is generally safe. Some disruptive antisocial behaviour can occur, but this is considerably less common on the Broken Hill Xplorer compared to some of NSW TrainLink's other services.

Make sure you are attentive to the whistles at rest stops – TrainLink can leave you behind if you do not return to the train on time. In the case of Ivanhoe and Menindee, there are no connecting coaches that could get you out of there.

Go next

Once you're at Broken Hill, you'll likely need to rent a car to explore the town. View the Broken Hill page for information pertaining to Broken Hill.

From Broken Hill, your options are to then either fly out or to Sydney, Adelaide or Dubbo. You can also take the coach back to Dubbo and a train to Sydney from there.

See also

Across Australia by train

• The Canadian
• California Zephyr

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