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A few weeks ago, overnight bag in hand, I strolled into Southern Cross Station to test a solution to the climate crisis.

Australians take more than 9 million flights between Melbourne and Sydney a year – each trip emitting about 71 kilograms of greenhouse gases.

It’s really, really hard to cut those emissions. The obvious solution: take the train.

Melbourne to Sydney via sleeper train: a climate crisis solution?Credit: Liam Mannix

Sleeper trains run every night between Melbourne and Sydney. You go directly from city centre to city centre. At $250, it’s competitive. You can take 45 kilograms of luggage. And it doesn’t matter that it’s slow because you’re asleep.

But as I stepped on board, I discovered that sleeper trains are like many potential Australian climate crisis solutions – they just don’t quite work yet.

Dinner on the Southern Aurora, seen in this photo from 1966.Credit: Fairfax Media

In The Ministry for the Future, author Kim Stanley Robinson imagines a post-net-zero world of travel by boat or train. It takes longer, but it’s much more comfortable, and you can stretch out and do work while travelling. In his prose, it sounds serene.

Forty years ago, the Southern Aurora and Spirit of Progress ferried 12 first-class sleeper carriages between Melbourne and Sydney each night. Dinner was a suit, pearls and champagne........

© The Age