[Article] Australia toasts transcontinental railway

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Australia toasts transcontinental railway
From:Reuters
Sunday, 15th February, 2004
By Michelle Nichols

DARWIN, Australia (Reuters) - Like a silver snake slithering through a rust-coloured desert, Australia's longest passenger train winds its way through the heart of the nation from the far south to the tropical north.

The terrain is flat and dry as far as the eye can see, yet a few young men appear as if from nowhere to toast "The Ghan" on its inaugural 2,979 km (1,847 mile) journey this month from Adelaide to the port of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

The trip by the kilometre-long train marks the fulfilment of a century-old dream for passenger trains to travel from the south, where Antarctic seas whip the coast, up to the north, a land of cyclones and crocodiles.

"They have been promising it for a long time and now it is finally here. The Territory has been opened up to Australia," said Tina Fowler, 37, who took her two daughters to see the train when it stopped at Katherine, 280 km southeast of Darwin.

"The Ghan", named after the pioneering Afghan camel riders who travelled this route carrying goods and communication to outback towns, inspired an outpouring of community spirit along its route.

Residents from towns and some of the nation's most remote communities along the track came out to watch the gleaming 45-carriage train as it roared past. Some waved flags. Two farmers held up a placard reading "At Last".

The idea of a transcontinental railway was first mooted 100 years ago and it is 75 years since the first train travelled from Adelaide to Alice Springs in central Australia.

But after years of economic and political debates, the dream of a south-to-north railway only became reality last year when a A$1.3 billion (544,000 million pounds) extension to Darwin was completed using a mix of private, state and national funding.


TRAIN HISTORY

The track extension was billed as one of Australia's biggest infrastructure projects, involving 93 bridges, two million concrete sleepers and 146,000 tonnes of steel rail.

The line was christened with the passage of a freight train in January but the departure of the first passenger train marked a new era in Australian travel, with heavy demand for the 340 tickets for the inaugural trip that cost up to A$12,000.

Former deputy prime minister and self-confessed train buff Tim Fischer was aboard "The Ghan" for its first trip and said it was an opportunity he would not have missed.

"It's the world's only north-south seamless continental railway because Europe has a break of gauge between France and Spain and Poland and Russia," Fischer said.

The operator, Great Southern Railway, sold more than A$15 million worth of tickets before the first train even departed with the trip proving more popular than expected.

"Our focus was getting the rail constructed and building a freight link. The interest in the passenger trip is something that has really snuck up and overwhelmed everyone," said Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin.

The 47-hour journey gives travellers a moving snapshot of the unique Australian landscape, starting at the sparkling Southern Ocean, through ochre deserts and lush cattle country before arriving in Darwin.

Alison Ross, 64, from the Victorian capital Melbourne, had waited 30 years to travel on "The Ghan" after her first attempt to take the train from Alice Springs to Adelaide was thwarted when floods washed away the track and forced her to fly home.

"This has fulfilled my wildest dreams. I just had to get on "The Ghan". Anything that makes history is special. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance," said Ross, who paid A$6,000 for the trip.


MASSIVE PROJECT

Construction of the 1,420 km railway extension revolved around the Northern Territory's December-March wet season, when up to 1,650 mm (65 inches) of rain can be dumped across Australia's far north.

According to Great Southern Railway, "The Ghan" was once reportedly stranded for two weeks after the track was washed away and the engine driver had to shoot wild goats to feed his guests.

Construction director Al Volpe said culverts designed to let water flow through tunnels under embankments were designed for a 50-year flood and bridges along the route for a 100-year flood.

While passengers are queuing to take the weekly Ghan, the primary use of the track is for freight with five freight trains running each week, opening up a new trade route to and from Asia.

Bruce McGowan, chief executive of Freightlink that operates the freight service, said the company already had 50 customers.

Freightlink hopes to be transporting about 800,000 tonnes of domestic freight per annum within three years and 50,000 tonnes of international freight between three and five years.

"When you connect by rail from the south to the north you are building a new trade route and that is nation building," said Martin, the Northern Territory's chief minister.