The Ghan

The Ghan is an abridged version of the Afghan Express which was its former nickname. There are different stories on how the name was obtained, but the credit for it was given to a crew member in 1923. There’s an opinion the name is to honour Afghan camel drivers who helped British colonised to reach the interior.

Others say that the name came from a veiled insult at the train that it would not achieve commercial success, but whatever inspired the name, the train service has been operating for more than 90 years now.

It began operating in August 1929, running on the Central Australian Railway, which was built using a 1,067 mm narrow-gauge. This changed in 1957 with the opening of the 1,435 mm standard gauge line from Stirling North to Marree. With that, the Ghan operation was limited to the north of Marree. The remainders of the rail line were replaced by a standard-gauge line constructed along the west of the original narrow line in 1980. In 2004, the line was extended from Alice Springs to Darwin.

In 1997, The Ghan was privatised. Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions which used to be known as Great Southern Rail has been operating it since that time. At first, it was part of the Serco Group that owned Great Southern Rail but Allegro Funds, which is a Sydney investment fund, bought it in March 2015.

The train operates weekly most times although there was a time in late 2012 and early 2013 when it travelled the route only one time in two weeks. On the route, the train has stopovers at Adelaide, Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin; the stopover at Katherine and Alice Springs gives the passengers time to go on optional tours.

The train has a motorail wagon in addition to between 16 and 38 stainless steel carriages that were constructed by Comeng, Granville, for the Indian Pacific. The train has an average length of 2,539 ft (774 metres). A Pacific National NR class locomotive often hauls the train with a second locomotive when necessary. There are times when a DL class or AN class locomotive assist.