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Route map of the Ghan

The Ghan at Alice Springs, 12 March 2007.

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.

The route of the Old Ghan

Arrival of the first Ghan into Darwin

The first train was operated by the Commonwealth Railways, on the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge railway from Port Augusta to Alice Springs on August 6, 1929.

It was not until October 1980 that a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola, South Australia (a siding on the Trans-Australian Railway) to Alice Springs opens, and the train took the form it is today. Construction of Alice Springs - Darwin line started in July 2001, with the first passenger train reaches Darwin on February 4, 2004.

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 2007–March 2008) timetable.

The Ghan is operated by Great Southern Railway Ltd, part of the Serco Group.

On 12 December 2006, the Ghan collided with a truck at a level crossing and derailed 35 km south of Adelaide River in the Northern Territory. Seven of the 11 carriages came off the tracks. One woman was critically injured, other passengers received only minor injuries. The truck driver involved was arrested, according to the NT police.^[1]

On 06 August 2007, the Ghan collided with a truck at a level crossing 50 km north of Adelaide in South Australia. 3 Passengers were reported with minor injuries, suffering from shock. The truck driver was temporarily trapped in his vehicle.^[2]

• Rozycki, Jack (Jan–Mar 2003). "The Never Never Line. Australia's biggest project: the Adelaide-Darwin railway". Australian Geographic 69: 50–67.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

The Ghan

• 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