Based on the British Rail-designed High Speed Train, each XPT set comprises two XP power cars in a push-pull configuration and, between them, between four and seven passenger carriages.

The XPT was procured following a competitive tendering process under an initial contract for 30 trainsets, comprising 10 power cars and 20 carriages, in March 1980.

The XPT proved to be considerably faster than existing rolling stock, reducing the journey time between Sydney and Melbourne by up to two hours.

During October 2016, the NSW government announced the XPT fleet would be entirely replaced as part of the Regional Train Project.

The passenger cars, built to a loading gauge bigger than that of railways in Britain, were based on a Budd design.

[17] By tightening up the diagrams, an overnight South XPT to Albury was introduced, but was withdrawn in June 1985 due to low patronage.

[23] Initially, the XPT carried a fare surcharge compared to parallel locomotive hauled services; however this charge was abolished from May 1985.

A five-carriage promotional train ran to Melbourne on Sunday 17 February 1985, running four free return shuttles to Tullamarine Loop.

[29] Following the election of the Greiner government in March 1988, consultants Booz Allen Hamilton were commissioned to prepare a report into NSW rail services.

On purely economic grounds, the report recommended closing all country passenger services as they were judged unviable; however this was not politically acceptable.

To provide rolling stock for these, the Canberra XPT was withdrawn and replaced by a locomotive hauled train and the Northern Tablelands Express was truncated to become a day return service to Tamworth.

When these were introduced in October 1993, the Northern Tablelands XPT ceased and the stock replaced a locomotive hauled set on a service to Grafton.

[35][36] These were included in an order placed with ABB in 1991 for four power cars and 13 trailers that was jointly funded by the New South Wales and Victorian governments.

After conducting a statewide tour in March, they were used on Canberra services from 23 April until 18 June 1995 with modified XPT power cars XP2000 and XP2009.

[50][51] During October 2013, using a set that had been isolated west of Lithgow by bushfires, it was deployed on the Outback Xplorer service to Broken Hill.

[58][59][60][61] After two carriages were written off after the Wallan derailment in 2020, UGL Rail was contracted to convert two XF economy sitting cars to an XAM sleeper and XBR first buffet.

[77] During February 2019, a contract with the Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was signed for a new fleet of bi-mode Civity trains; these are to replace the XPTs.

[78] Originally scheduled to enter service sometime in 2023, the Civity fleet has been delayed, allegedly due to requested design changes.

This pattern has led to the XPT being one of the most utilised train fleets worldwide with only three significant periods of downtime in the cycle.

The negotiations were sufficiently advanced for the Prime Minister of Thailand to announce the agreement on television, however the Australian Department of Trade withdrew its support at the last moment and the deal fell through.