The Ghan
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The Ghan is the 48-hour, 2,979-km passenger train operating on the Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin Central Australian Railway in Australia. The service's name is an abbreviated version of its previous nickname The Afghan Express, which comes from the Afghan camel trains that trekked the same route before the advent of the railway.
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[edit] History
Original construction was by South Australian Railways as a narrow gauge (3' 6" or 1067 mm) line.
- January 18, 1878: South: Construction from Port Augusta starts
- 1879: South: Quorn reached
- 1883: South: Marree reached
- 1883: North: Construction of northern line from Palmerston (Darwin) starts
- 1888: North: Pine Creek reached
- 1891: South: Oodnadatta reached
- 1910: First promise to complete the line in the Acceptance Act (but no date given)
- 1926: Line acquired by Commonwealth Railways
- 1926: North: Katherine reached
- 1929: North: Birdum reached, terminus at Larrimah
- August 6, 1929: South: Alice Springs reached, the Ghan starts running under current name; the northern and southern parts are not connected.
The tortuously curving line was notoriously prone to delays, often caused by flash floods washing away bridges and tracks. A decision was thus made to rebuild the entire line with a straighter alignment some 150 km west of the existing track, this time using standard gauge.
- 1957: South: Line from Stirling North (near Port Augusta) to Marree rebuilt and connected to Adelaide
- Some sections of the narrow-gauge line remain in operation as the Pichi Richi Railway
- 1976: North: line closed
- October 1980: South: New line from Tarcoola, South Australia (a siding on the Trans-Australian Railway) to Alice Springs opens
- July 2001: North: Construction of Alice Springs - Darwin line starts
- September 17, 2003: Darwin reached, the line from Adelaide to Darwin is complete
- January 17, 2004: First freight train reaches Darwin
- February 4, 2004: First passenger train reaches Darwin
[edit] Construction of Alice Springs - Darwin railway
In 2000, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation (a company owned by the Northern Territory and South Australian Governments) awarded the contract to build and operate the Adelaide to Darwin railway line as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer back (BOOT) project to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium. The Asia Pacific Transport Consortium contracted FreightLink to implement the project and to operate the railway.
The Australian Government contributed $165 million from the Centenary of Federation Fund, the Northern Territory Government contributed $165 million and the South Australian Government contributed $150 million to the AustralAsia Rail Corporation for the construction of assets by Asia Pacific Transport Consortium and FreightLink that were later leased for a peppercorn rent to FreightLink In addition, the three Governments contributed about $26 million each, a total of $79 million in further funding to support the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium directly, by way of mezzanine debt financing (subordinated debt), equity, and contingent equity.
[edit] Operations
The Ghan runs twice-weekly from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and once or twice a week to Darwin, depending on seasonal traffic and demand - twice-weekly in the current (April 2006–March 2007) timetable.
The Ghan is operated by Great Southern Railway Ltd, part of the Serco Group.
[edit] References
- Rozycki, Jack (Jan–Mar 2003). "The Never Never Line. Australia's biggest project: the Adelaide-Darwin railway". Australian Geographic 69: 50–67.
[edit] External links
- The Ghan homepage
- History of the line
- History of the Adelaide-Darwin Railway
- The Ghan ephemera digitised and held by the National Library of Australia
