Indian Pacific - History

History

The first Indian Pacific service left Sydney on 23 February 1970, becoming the first direct train to cross the Australian continent, made possible by the completion of an east-west standard gauge route a few months earlier.

The train originally operated four days per week, departing Sydney on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and departing Perth on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

The service was originally operated jointly by the New South Wales Government Railways, South Australian Railways, Commonwealth Railways and Western Australian Government Railways. The stainless steel carriages, purpose-built for the train by Comeng, were owned by the Commonwealth Railways with a proportion of the maintenance paid by the New South Wales, South Australian and Western Australian state governments. The carriages carried Railways of Australia branding to avoid having to name the four different railway systems.

Locomotives and crews were provided by the New South Wales Government Railways between Sydney and Broken Hill, South Australian Railways between Broken Hill and Port Pirie, the Commonwealth Railways between Port Pirie and Kalgoolie and Western Australian Government Railways between Kalgoorlie and Perth. With the formation of the Australian National in July 1975, it provided locomotives and crews from Broken Hill to Kalgoorlie. Locomotives were changed at Lithgow, Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie.

On board crews were originally provided between Sydney and Port Pirie by Commonwealth Railways on one service and New South Wales Government Railways on the other services, Commonwealth Railways between Port Pirie and Kalgoolie and West Australian Government Railways between Kalgoolie and Perth.

The Indian Pacific (and the The Ghan) featured in an episode of BBC Television's series Great Railway Journeys of the World in 1980, presented by Michael Frayn.

The service was suspended from 2 December 1982 to 25 April 1983 due to an industrial dispute over staffing levels in South Australia.

From 1983 the train commenced operating via Adelaide (see Route below).

In February 1993 the operation of the train was operated by Australian National throughout after agreement was reached with the State Rail Authority of New South Wales and Westrail in 1992. From January 1994 the service was operated throughout by Australian National CL class locomotives.

As part of the privatisation of Australian National, the Indian Pacific along with The Ghan and The Overland, was sold to Great Southern Rail in October 1997. Motive power provision was contracted to National Rail with one NR class usually used, often one of four of which have been repainted in Indian Pacific livery. It is often assisted by a 2nd NR class or a DL class.