Outback train rolls north on new tracks
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Nick Smail, right, and Eric Sultan walk with their camels alongside the tracks as The Ghan arrives in Alice Springs, Australia, Monday.
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ALICE SPRINGS, Australia (AP) -- A passenger train rolled toward tracks heading north from Alice Springs for the first time Monday as it crossed the halfway stage in its historic inaugural south-to-north journey.
The Ghan, named for Afghan camel drivers who helped build the first railroad into the harsh Outback from Australia's south coast, arrived in this central city of 20,000 on time at noon, 24 hours after leaving Adelaide.
Thousands of people stood cheering and waving by the track throughout Sunday as the train passed through Adelaide's sprawling suburbs and into the dry farmland to the north. But by Monday morning, the towns had made way for the red sand and low spiky spinifex bushes of the Outback.
Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, speaking to reporters on the train, said the link finished work he started three decades ago.
"I am delighted that Australia has now fulfilled the transcontinental railway which my government and the then premier of South Australia inaugurated 30 years ago," Whitlam said.
After stopping for a celebration in Alice Springs, The Ghan was to head onto newly laid tracks that complete the long-awaited coast-to-coast railroad from Adelaide in the south to the northern port of Darwin.
While The Ghan has been ferrying passengers from Adelaide to Alice Springs since 1929, Monday was the first time the train was able to continue on to Darwin, thanks to a 1,420 kilometers (882 miles) track extension completed late last year at a cost of 1.3 billion Australian dollars (US$988 million).
The inaugural train was made up of 43 carriages hauled by two locomotives, making it Australia's longest ever passenger train at 1,069 meters (1,169 yards).
Whitlam was its guest of honor, staying in an ornate wooden carriage used in 1921 by Britain's Prince of Wales when he visited Australia before becoming King Edward VIII who later abdicated the throne.
Whitlam hinted that when the prince was on board the train in Australia he was not always alone.
"I was not present when the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, used this carriage for a great variety of experiences," Whitlam said. "I cannot verify (them) but there are well authenticated records that a number of ladies were close to him on its first voyage in 1921."
The extension was billed as one of Australia's biggest ever civil engineering projects and completed the 2,979-kilometer (1,851-mile) Adelaide to Darwin line.
The train passed through Two Wells, 45 kilometers north of Adelaide, on Sunday.
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The new track features 90 bridges and 146,000 tons (160,937 U.S. tons) of steel rails.
Daytime temperatures were sometimes so hot in the Outback that construction staff worked under lights through the cool nights and slept through the days. They also had to contend with the prospect of floods and consulted local Aboriginal tribes to ensure the tracks did not pass through any of their sacred sites.
While an east-west link between Sydney on Australia's east coast and Perth on the West Australian coast has existed for years, this is the first time north and south have been connected.
Once the train starts regular services, tickets for adults will start at A$440 (US$334). For this special first trip, the most expensive ticket was A$12,000 (US$9,120).
The inaugural passenger service follows the arrival in Darwin of the first freight train to use the new Adelaide-Darwin line on January 17.
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
