The Indian Pacific is a weekly passenger rail service running between Sydney and Perth, Australia. It is one of the few truly transcontinental trains in the world. The train first ran in February 1970 after the completion of gauge conversion projects in South and Western Australia.
The route includes the world's longest straight stretch of railway track, a 478 kilometre stretch over the Nullarbor Plain. In 1983 the service was extended to serve Adelaide. A one-way trip originally took 75 hours, but with line and efficiency improvements it now takes 65 hours. The train currently has four classes, branded as Platinum, Gold Service and Red Service Sleeper and Red Service Daynighter and also a Motorail service to convey passengers' motor vehicles.
In February 1993 the train became part of Australian National and in October 1997 was sold to Great Southern Rail.
Read more about Indian Pacific: History, Route, Passenger Facilities, Special Trains, Christmas Train, Incidents, Gallery
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“Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Really, there is no infidelity, nowadays, so great as that which prays, and keeps the Sabbath, and rebuilds the churches. The sealer of the South Pacific preaches a truer doctrine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)