Indian Pacific

For the first time in Australian history, you could board a train on the Pacific coast and ride it all the way to the Indian Ocean without changing carriages.

They called the new service the Indian Pacific, and for a generation, Australians rode it.

Three days from Sydney to Perth, through the Blue Mountains, across the western plains of New South Wales, through South Australia, out onto the Nullarbor.

The world was changing around the railway, though.

But the line didn't die.

It changed.

Today, the Indian Pacific runs as what they call an experiential tourism service.

People book it not because they have to get to Perth by train, but because they want to see the country from the inside.

want to say about that money, Graeme, is I'd upgrade Red Hill Oval, and I'd have the West Coast team, one of the teams play, one of the Sydney teams, first game of opening round.

I'd have the Indian Pacific Park there, all on the footage.

so people can get the train from the West.

And the last game, if I could gather around, I'd have the other West Coast team play the other New South Wales team and have the return trip of the Indian Pacific.

So I'd throw $50 million or $80 million, whatever it costs, give everyone a bag of chips, and then I'd just live off the merch for a while, Graeme.

Jim, I love your thinking.

I

was at the Oval yesterday and a train went by and I snapped a picture and I sent it to Timmy and Rowey, so I'll I will text it to you and you can see it's the freight train.

Oh, that's a good point.

On diesel, says my texter, I suppose the Indian Pacific runs on diesel.

Curious about fuel consumption on rail.

Well, yeah, they do.

I wouldn't say that they're really transport.

There are trains like the Ghan, the Indian Pacific, and these are really iconic journeys, but these are holidays in themselves.

So people usually take these because they want the specific experience, not because they're actually the quickest way to get somewhere.

If your goal is simply moving between destinations, I'd probably recommend domestic flights as the most practical and most efficient way to get somewhere.

Yeah, yeah.

And like it is Sydney to Perth as well with the Indian Pacific, I think they all adopted the 4 foot 8 inch standard gauge after the mess up in colonial times and they all went with a standard one that New South Wales had adopted from England early on.

Have you caught that train recently?

No.

The journey becoming an exercise in duration rather than distance.

The Indian Pacific crossing the Australian continent from Sydney to Perth covers a total distance of four thousand three hundred fifty-two kilometers in approximately sixty-five hours, making it one of the longest single train journeys available to passengers anywhere in the world.

The journey crosses three time zones and passes through landscapes that shift from the temperate forests and farmland of New South Wales through the arid expanses of South Australia and across the vast, flat, virtually uninhabited Nullarbor Plain to the Indian Ocean coast of Western Australia.

The train includes the longest straight stretch of railway in the world, four hundred and seventy-eight kilometers across the Nullarbor Plain without a single curve.

There was five boys.

We went across on the Indian Pacific, right? Sleeper.

And I think it was, was it 200? Two nights and one day, I'm not sure, anyway, yeah.

So we ended up, that cost us $55 one way.

The journey becoming an exercise in duration rather than distance.

The Indian Pacific, crossing the Australian continent from Sydney to Perth, covers a total distance of 4,352 kilometres in approximately 65 hours, making it one of the longest single train journeys available to passengers anywhere in the world.

The journey crosses three time zones, and passes through landscapes that shift from the temperate forests and farmland of New South Wales, through the arid expanses of South Australia, and across the vast, flat, virtually uninhabited Nullarbor Plain to the Indian Ocean, coast of Western Australia.

The train includes the longest straight stretch of railway in the world, 478 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain without a single curve.

stuff around sydney get to know sydney a little bit and get another part of the country as well

yeah so it's funny you should say that right because when exactly when i came in um this last february and we were able to connect of course I had taken the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney and I actually arrived a week before Mardi Gras.

But it was it was really fortuitous or serendipitous because I happened to arrive on the night of a great party that I think probably a lot of travelers miss.

And I have to tell you, this is my favorite party from from the although I love Laneway, too, which we're going to talk about.

I mean, I'm fairly well traveled in Australia for an American.

Okay, for an American, I'll qualify that.

But on my last visit, when I took the Indian Pacific train from Perth to Sydney, that ranks as a trip I'll never forget.

Crossing the entire continent, the entire outback was like, I mean... we they're out out there there are camels kangaroos emus uh goats i mean you you know kangaroo you name it like it's it's stark but beautiful and like it's it's it's an astonishing country astonishing continent