Information AboutThe Ghan |
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| named passenger trains | |
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| rail transport in australia | |
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The Ghan, short for '''The Afghan''', is the 48-hour, 2,979-km passenger service 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 in turn comes from the Afghan Camel Train s which trekked the same route before the advent of the railway. HISTORY Initial construction was by South Australian Railways as a Narrow Gauge (3' 6" or 1067 mm) line.
The tortuously curving narrow-gauge line was notoriously prone to delays, often caused by flash floods washing away bridges and tracks. A decision was thus made to rebuild the entire line with a straighter alignment some 150 km east of the existing track, this time using Standard Gauge .
Construction of Alice Springs - Darwin railway In 2000, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation (a company owned by the Northern Territory and South Australian Governments ) awarded the contract to build and operate the Adelaide to Darwin railway line as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer back (BOOT) project to the the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium . The Asia Pacific Transport Consortium contracted FreightLink to implement the project and to operate the railway. The Australian Government contributed $165 million from the Centenary of Federation Fund, the Northern Territory Government contributed $165 million and the South Australian Government contributed $150 million to the AustralAsia Rail Corporation for the construction of assets by Asia Pacific Transport Consortium and FreightLink that were later leased for a peppercorn rental to FreightLink. In addition, the three Governments contributed about $26 million each, a total of $79 million in further funding to support the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium directly, by way of mezzanine debt financing (subordinated debt), equity and contingent equity. OPERATIONS The Ghan runs twice-weekly from Adelaide to Alice Springs and once or twice a week to Darwin, depending on seasonal traffic and demand. The current (April 2006–March 2007) timetable has the service running twice a week to Darwin. REFERENCES
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