Someone just told me I should check out the fast Train from Sydney to Cairns but all I could find was Brisbane to Cairns $187.00 so that is more expensive than flying. Can anyone offer any info on travel Sydney to Cairns cheaper than flying.

Keep on checking Virgin and Qantas - they are always having sales and you may be able to find a cheaper fare. I understand long distance bus fares are usually dearer than flying and certainly more painful.

don't forget jetstar (also known as deathstar)
jetstar.com.au

warrsher, if there's any such thing as a fast train from Sydney to Cairns it must have happened while my attention was otherwise engaged. You're talking a very, very long distance here, so the discount air fares commonly offered are a bargain. I can't imagine a cheaper way to do it. Even $187 strikes me as pretty reasonable for a trek like BNE-CNS - at a guess I would think that would hardly cover fuel costs if you were to drive. And taking a bus sounds truly nightmarish.

Thanks for the info and and yes Jetstar has really good price right now.
Warren.

No trains from Sydney to Cairns. Bus or fly is options.If in hostel in Sydney highly probable you can share ride with guests going that way.

The route is Sydney to Brisbane and then change trains for Brisbane to Cairns BUT when you talk about "fast trains" in Australia you are talking about a really good oxymoron if you want a fast train wait till you are in Europe and take the TGV. When they mean fast here they mean that the go faster than I can run - and I don't run.

Or the maglev train that runs from Shanghai's Pudong airport to Long Yang station - it hit 431 km/hr the day we took it and the 30+ km run was silky-smooth and over in less than 8 minutes. Now, THAT's a fast train, and at about US$5 pp a good fare too. The Chinese government is evaluating the possibility of a maglev run from Shanghai to Beijing, some 1400 km.

Oh come now, Liz. You do have fast trains there. My wife and I rode the tilt train from Gladstone to Brisbane in November.......the day before it...uh...crashed. The next day the newspaper reports said that one of the passengers was watching the speedometer that they have on the train's TV and it was going 160kmh...just before the crash. So it does go fast.
(It's actually a VERY NICE TRAIN, but I sure wouldn't take a train from SYD to CNS though)

Yes PN it does go fast, it just doesn't go fast all the time, and if I was running I could catch it up then.

Firstly you'd have to catch a train from Sydney to Brisbane (the XPT) which would be a day and a night. Then you'd have to change trains in Brisbane and take the Cairns Tilt Train to Cairns, which takes a day and a night. It is much cheaper and QUICKER to catch a plane. Virgin has cheap flights now and again, but regardless of price, flying is worth it just to save yourself from deep vein thrombosis!

Thanks for all the info. I love this site. It will be all planes for me. There is just far to much to see to take time traveling.
Warren

It's worth checking the websites of all three trunk carriers - Virgin Blue, Qantas and JetStar (Qantas' budget subsidiary).