Great Southern Rail (GSR), owned by Serco Asia Pacific, is a tourism business and rail transport operator in Australia.
GSR operates interstate passenger trains aimed at the tourist market:
- The Indian Pacific (Sydney–Adelaide–Perth)
- The Ghan (Adelaide–Alice Springs–Darwin)
- The Overland (Melbourne–Adelaide)
- The Southern Spirit (Brisbane-Melbourne-Adelaide)
The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland were operated until 1997 by Australian National Railways. As a Government enterprise, it was always unprofitable. The Australian Commonwealth sold ANR Passenger and Freight in 1997. Great Southern Rail was a consortium of Macquarie Bank, Serco Plc, and GB Railways. GSR took over the operation of the Indian Pacific, The Ghan and The Overland passenger trains. While the former two services are profitable, the operation of The Overland is subsidised by the Victorian and South Australian governments.
GSR reduced costs by renegotiating staff pay and conditions, and by extending the Ghan, which originally ran from Adelaide to Alice Springs, so that it ran once each week from Sydney and once each week from Melbourne. With completion of the railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Ghan now runs from Adelaide to Darwin. While GSR owns the passenger car fleet, Pacific National provides hook and pull (locomotive haulage) services.
The Southern Spirit is a luxury cruising train service, launched by Great Southern Rail on 17 June 2008, with the inaugural service running on 25 November 2008.
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
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