I drove from Darwin to Alice Springs in 1971 and loaded my car onto the Ghan for the journey down to Port Augusta - one of the most memorable trips of my lifetime and I've been around a bit. I also traveled from Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific train a year later. Stand out memories both - if you get the opportunity you will always regret not taking it.
God. What would it cost today to load a vehicle onto The Ghan? Amazing. I want to do this journey. I've been to Egypt, England, Turkey but I've next to nothing of my own country Canada. I think I'm a bit crazy for that.
1971 would have been the old Ghan. Now that was an adventure. I travelled to Alice Springs on it near the end of its life in 1980. It had nowhere near the amenities or comfort of the modern train on a floodproof track further to the west but had atmosphere in spades. We arrived in The Alice five hours behind schedule, but it was the correct day so it counted as being on time. Sometimes in its history is was delayed for several weeks en route because of floods and washaways. The new route has no such problems. And, in 2004 I think, the line was finally completed to Darwin, more than a century after it was started.
2:19 that snoring haha. Great video and great quality. Makes me jealous. I would love to have the window bed so you can just lay there and look out the window with ease. Thanks for sharing! Liked and subscribed!
I took a train once from Sydney to Brisbane. Once we got to Casino, we took a bus the rest of the way. Really enjoyed seeing places like "Surfers Paradise" when the bus stopped there. I do look forward to taking the Ghan some day too.
Welcome to Australia Sir. Funny thing about deserts etc. BORING...... Think that bad try driving by road from Adelaide to Darwin. Now that is boring. Speaking from experience.6 times by car, not in a road Train.
Nice video. We did the trip in 2000 when it ended in Alice Springs. Sure would love to get back to Australia again and do the trip. Everyone in your country was very friendly .
Love this video! I am a Physical Therapist working with students in a Special Needs school in Michigan, USA, and during this COVID 19 time of school closure, we are using videos for our primary means of instruction. We are creating a series of videos which introduce our students to locations around the world, and we incorporate the PT component by inviting them to move along with us as we explore the locations. I am wondering if we could use footage from your video . I think that showing footage from this video as part of our unit on Australia would be very engaging for our students! We would be happy to acknowledge your contribution at the end of our video. Thanks so much for considering this!
Not much point in high-speed train travel in a vast, thinly-populated country with ample air travel as an alternative. The point of (slow) train travel is to savour and enjoy the trip and all the scenery sliding by.
I have just been watching this journey on UK television, about four hours I think it was. No commentary or music just the ambient sounds, very restful.
Great video. In China the train runs at 300-350km/h and cost a fraction of the price in Australia, Canada, USA or even Russia. That's why I prefer driving or aeroplanes.
Thanks so much for posting this. I had no idea there was currently a train that went all the way from Adelaide to Darwin. From geography decades ago I thought there was some sort of RR between the Alice and Darwin but thought it was long discontinued. Was there anything older between Adelaide and the Alice? Is this narrow gauge or standard? Again, a great video and a fascinating story! Many Thanks!
The "old" Ghan used to operate on 3'6'' gauge from Marree, in northern South Australia, only as far as Alice Springs, N.T. There was a gap of about 700 miles to Larrimah, which was the southern terminus of the narrow gauge North Australia Railway heading south from Darwin - in later years, freight only; so passenger travel to Darwin was only by road or air. Marree was connected to Adelaide in later years by standard gauge.
Fascinating! It's quite bizzare that australia very much like the US hasn't switched to high speed railways as much of the modern world did. Car and oil lobbies are strong there too I guess. This creaky oldtimer train was absolute joy to watch though. Reminds me of USSR and the trans-siberian.
Apart from Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine, the population between Adelaide and Darwin is virtually zero. No passengers, no high speed service.
Codenwarra Cove On the other hand it's a chicken and egg problem. If the transport infrastructure isn't there, places like darwin or perth will always remain remote and underdeveloped parts of the country. In today's world high speed railway is an established technology and much cheaper than in the 80s and 90s. It's just hard to understand why rich governments like australia, canada or US don't invest in it. Car and oil lobbies come to mind here. I don't agree with phillyslasher either, in today's world speed is money. No commuter train can match the speed and efficacy of a high speed one. With high speed rail, you can increase the number of travelers in a unit of time 10x to 20x and it's much much cheaper than flying on planes. It's a *huge* advantage.
playbossanova From about 300 kilometres north of Adelaide almost to Darwin there is not enough water to support farming or towns. Not much rain and not much in the underground either. Large dams are not practical because the land is flat. Not much water = not much population. Not much population = no high speed rail. Adelaide to Perth is much the same.
I think the reason is not the one the people describe here in such detail. As someone who lived there for 6 years, I can tell you that Central Australia is seriously hot and dry - but full of cattle and isolated farms around Alice Springs and Tennant Creek etc and besides that, there are huge herds of wild horses and wild camels and near Darwin, in the Kakadu, herds of water buffaloes and all over the place 40-50 species of kangaroos and dingoes etc. So can anyone imagine what does it cost to fence completely a 5000 km long rail on both sides for a high speed train to be operable and not have animals crossing? And this in a flat area where flush flooding is common almost every second year in the wet season, washing the Ghan's rails out of use sometimes for a couple of months? Of course if there would be a bullet train like in France or Japan, Central Australia would grow, get far more populated than currently is because there are subterranean lakes there and it rains some years so much, that seas could be filled with that water...and it could be stored in subterranean reservoirs quite easily. However, the heat is a big problem. People cannot live without air conditioning over there in 45 degrees Celsius 7-8 months a year and for that they need a lot of electricity and the current solar cells and wind-mills are not yet advanced enough.Central Australia is not windy and the dust storms when it is, render the solar cells unusable for days until cleaned... Also, the food has to be brought from far away by truck or train or plain, so vegetables and fruit are extremely expensive over there at the moment.
Well done Michael Thanks for uploading such an amazing video Could you please share more about this railway, i've heard that this railway have been built by Afghan workers, is anybody here write down more please thanks Mehdi Naji
No, not quite. No line was built by Afghans, the line was built by many-many different people from different ethnicities in fact, including Chinese . The name of the train, The Ghan, comes from the name Afghan, because when the Telegraph Station in Alice Springs was built in order to connect Adelaide with Darwin via telegraph, and the telegraph wires were set, Afghans from Afghanistan were brought here with their camels by the British as the horses could not do the job of transporting the people and the materials across the continent in a straight line from south to north or vice-versa.
When you understand how the wheels (Bogies ) work on the rail you will understand why they make noise. Friction is all I can say, weight plays a big factor as well
I expect this line was built mainly for freight. The ability to run passenger trains is a bonus and probably a lifeline for the people who live in the desert
Yep. And I'm not kidding. But you need to step on one or get very close for the beast to 'attack' you....They just defend themselves, being as scared of us as we are of them. I met 3 in the past 20 years, up-close-and-personal enough to be in danger but they ran away fast and I'm still alive. If you pay attention when you walk in the desert stop when you hear some woosh on the ground and that gives the snake the time it needs to save itself from you....and vice-versa
This is fantastic, thank you for sharing. Question, is the train continuously moving during the night? If during the night you can't sleep can you go and hang out in the dining car, grab a drink or have a bite to eat?
believe it or not? the wind turbines the higlight lol. travelled the GHAN 3 times. if your not gold or platinum class who are met with electric carts. your in for a long long walk upon arrival katherine etc. alice nots so bad
Can u please tell me is there other way getting in sydney from perth besides Indian pacific Express or ghan ( because they r expensive) and flights ( they r cheap but i don't feel like that on flight as we do in train..did u get my point what i'm trying to say
There's no bus from Sydney to Perth - it's a 4,000km journey, and west of Adelaide, there's pretty much nothing until you get to Perth. The train is a luxury travel option and the train itself is pretty much the highlight. If you don't want to fly then you can either do the train as a luxury experience, or hire a camper and make a road trip of it. If you detour a bit are some genuinely beautiful sights en-route, but ultimately it's still sugar-coating the fact that it's a four thousand km drive, with a lot of monotonous farmland in the east, and monotonous nothing in the west.
uhm.... that's called the "Indian Pacific". Sydney to Perth, 4,352km in 3 days. You'd need to get the XPT from Brisbane to Sydney first. Plus, this train does not call at Alice Springs as the Indian Pacific does not go into the Northern Territory.
+Nathan. I see. Maybe in capitalist society, It is very difficult to build any railway across wild outback, because they won't get the return from high investment. Soviet Union and China have built Seberian and Tibetan railway. But I think it is unbelievable in western countries.
It has nothing to do with capitalist society - it has to do with LOGIC and common sense. It's nothing there, NOT EVEN 100-200 people live there - so who needs that railway and for what? Not even aboriginal people live there. If a minimum of 5-10.000 people lived there, then it would make sense to have some train once a week, but there's NOTHING but kangaroos and dingoes, and rocks and sand, and rocks and sand, and some bushes, and 20 types of the MOST VENOMOUS snakes in the world. Did China build a railway across Gobi desert? Gobi Desert has 1,295,000 km2 and the Australian Deserts cover 1,371,000 km2 - with 76,000 km2 bigger than Gobi
Hi everyone I think the ghan or Afghan Train was biuld by Afghans camelers in Australia can someone explain please the story of Great AFGHANS thank you
Try this link for details - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghan. It appears the train was named after the Afghan cameleers who worked in the centre of Australia. Not sure that they built the line.
No, it was not built by Afghans, it was built by standard railway building machinery and completed in 2004. In the 1800s though Afghan and other experienced camel drivers came to Australia to transport materials for the Overland Telegraph Line which was completed in 1872. Many stayed here and continued to keep camels for transport and some went into business. When motor cars and trucks were introduced, there was less demand for camels and so many of the descendants of those who stayed are now shopkeepers or work in ordinary jobs in towns.
As I've heard the story, the Ghan is named for the Afghan camel drivers that worked the lines through to Darwin. The Afghans did help with the camels that brought the materials to build the overland telegraph and later the original narrow gauge line.
@@michaelLcowling thank you, do you know what 'vv' is on the sheet? Do you know if i can stay in alice spring for a few days and then move on to darwin? Cheers.
vv means vice versa which, in turn, means the fare is the same either way - Adelaide to Darwin or Darwin to Adelaide. I don't know how to answer your second question. Try the web site.
That's a great video from the Ghan, makes me wanna go to the other part of the world, get onboard and enjoy the ride & the views! May I ask whether they inform passengers about such attraction en route as the Iron Man or the oldest river in the world? Cheers from Poland! PS You may check out my channel if you like, too.
michaelLcowling That is so great, makes me wanna fly to Australia and take a trip with that train even more. Best regards from Poland and waiting for more footage! :)
I guess if you like trains, and have money, the best train to travel on would be "THE CANADIAN" from Toronto to Vancouver..........tons of breathtaking scenery, but this GHAN train is ok, but nothing to see except dried out flatness
Thanks for your comment. Have you been on this train though or just commenting on the video? I took the Rocky Mountaineer from Calgary to Vancouver and the scenery was stunning. I am thinking of going to Australia next year and taking the Ghan, but the scenery doesn't look as interesting or train as comfortable so I am wondering if flying would be better.
The scenery is typical for an enormous desert - of course you cannot compare the Sahara landscape for example with the Argentinian Pampas - can you? Same here - there's a big difference from a continent to another. If the scenery would be like in Canada, then Australia would be a very cold country, and vice-versa, Canada would be hot as the Simpson Desert = 47-48 degrees Celsius. Alice Springs and Katherine are desert towns - small ones, The Alice being better and larger, Katherine actually is more of a village. I lived in Alice Springs for 6 years in the Eighties, there's a lot to see in Central Australia - things you'll never see anywhere else in the world, but then you'll have to stop there, not just for 4 hours but for few days and go to Simpsons Gap and Glen Helen and Palm Valley and Kings Canyon and The Olgas, and Uluru, etc. They are all around Alice Springs in a 5-600 km radius and there are air conditioned comfortable coaches to take you to each of these places in a day tour.
@Barbara Perez thanks for your comment. I did go to Oz 3 years ago but didn't take the Ghan trip. After comments I read, I preferred to spend money on other things like a scuba dive. I think I will save up for a train journey in Africa or India for the next train adventure!
note? if your recliner seat passenger ? the train staff are prison guard like in there attitude, . if you try to sleep away from your seat there over you like a dose of salt.
Slip away where? I've been in the Ghan myself 4 times. They have a lounge car and a casino car and a buffet car and you can go there any time. They have showers at the ends of the cars too - so you can go shower. Other than that - where do you need to... slip? To the first class? Of course if you have a recliner seat ticket you cannot go anywhere but the places you paid for in that train.
