Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Ghan train travels from
Adelaide to Alice Springs
467 Take The Train across
ausTralia
to Alice Springs, where you have four hours to
see the sights before heading up to Katherine for
another stop and the final stretch up to Darwin;
while the
XPT
travels from Sydney up the east
coast overnight and arrives in Brisbane the
following morning, where you can change to the
sleeper
Tilt Train
, which arrives in Cairns the
following evening.
None of these trips will get you from A to
B quickly, but these journeys aren't meant
to be purely a means of transport: they're a
sightseeing trip, a hotel and a sociable holiday
all in one.
For many, crossing the vast Australian bush is
all about
Flying Doctors
and
Priscilla Queen of
the Desert
. A bustling network of European-style
high-speed rail lines it is not. Yet it is possible
to cross the length and breadth of the country
by train in relative comfort, thanks to the
clean, air-conditioned interstate services that
provide comfortable sleeping carriages, private
washrooms and a dining car. Flying is the
quickest and cheapest way to get between the
major cities, but take the train and you'll see the
wheat fields of Victoria, the dusty outback towns
and kilometres of endless white-sand beaches.
The
Indian Pacific,
, from Sydney to Perth via
Adelaide, is one of the world's longest train
journeys. It's a three-day, 4352km trip (that's
just one-way), though the train stops long
enough for you to spend an evening in the gold-
rush town of Kalgoorlie and to visit the remote
outpost community of Cook on the Nullarbor
Plain. The
Ghan
travels from Adelaide overnight
Need to know
For times, fares and reservations
for all Australian trains see
W
www.railaustralia.com.
au;
T
+61 882 134 592. For more information on
specific rail journeys, including stopping services,
from Melbourne-Sydney-Brisbane-Canberra see
W
www.countrylink.info; for Sydney-Melbourne-
Adelaide-Perth and Melbourne-Alice Springs-
Darwin see
W
www.gsr.com.au; and for Brisbane-
Townsville-Cairns see
W
www.traveltrain.com.
au. For maps of all, see
W
www.railmaps.com.au.
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