Australind train farewell: Workers and commuters share their stories of the train that thinks it is a plane

After 36 years of travelling between Perth and Bunbury, the Australind train ran its final journey on Sunday. Over that time, the service has become ingrained in the memories of thousands of people, including commuters, staff and communities along the route. Over the weekend, a few of them headed down to the Bunbury Railway Terminal to say farewell or were special guests on the last services. Julie Hayworth was among them, having worked on the train for nearly 15 years. When the Carpenter government attempted to scale back the Australind to a once-a-day service in 2006, she worked with other community members on a petition which received more than 10,000 signatures and resulted in a backdown. She was sad the service was coming to an end. “It’s been such a wonderful service, and hopefully we’ll have the new train ready for when the line reopens shortly,” Ms Hayworth said. During her time working on the train, she mainly worked on the buffet service, including providing the iconic ham and cheese toasties. “There was a nightmare at one stage because the toaster that we had failed and they tried to work out a different way of doing them and there was probably about three years we didn’t sell toasted sandwiches,” she said. “I would guarantee just about every passenger that’s travelled on there wanted a toasted sandwich on the day they travelled.” Bunbury resident Michael English used the Australind four times a month, describing it as an enjoyable service. “It’s twice a day there (to Perth) and back, the timings run good early in the morning and also late in the evening,” he said. “It is perfect.” But perhaps the person who is going to miss the Australind train the most is Cookernup resident Shannon Winduss. One of the train’s most frequent users, the town’s station was named after her in 2020. The iconic passenger was a guest on both farewell services, even being allowed into the driver’s seat while it was at Perth station. After 10 years of riding the service, Ms Winduss is sad to see it go. “I think it had to happen, but it is what it is,” she said. “The hard part was actually watching it take off for the last time, I bawled my eyes out. It was really lovely.” Ms Winduss noted it was not only the train she was going to miss. “I think I am going to miss all of the staff, they have been so nice to me,” she said.