SA has long battled to keep pace with the more populous eastern States and a high-speed rail network that literally leaves Adelaide out of the loop would seriously disadvantage us.

This issue and others affecting SA are examined in the SA Business Monthly lifout in The Advertiser on Tuesday.

The high-speed rail project is a long way off but just as it took many decades to go from wishful thinking to reality for the Alice Springs to Darwin rail track, a high-speed rail network linking the capitals will eventually be built.

Should Adelaide receive a high-speed rail link? Share your opinion here.

In the decades ahead, petroleum prices will soar, making car and air travel considerably more expensive. Coupled with greenhouse gas concerns, this will accelerate demand for rail as an alternative. In pushing our case, SA should enlist an unlikely ally Melbourne.

While Adelaidians frequently compare their city to Melbourne, the Victorians’ real rival is Sydney.

It should be pointed out to Melbourne that with a network extending to Adelaide, Melbourne would be a node equal to Sydney, rather than the last stop at the end of the line.

Victoria could also be sold the benefits of Horsham becoming the only stop on a Melbourne-Adelaide route. This would open up the western Victorian region that would otherwise risk becoming isolated.

SA has a proud history in the rail sector, being home to some of the most important and innovative rail organisations, such as the Australian Rail Track Corporation.

Obviously, it would cost many billions of dollars extra to include the link to Adelaide and it would not be an easy case to mount on strict profit criteria.

But if we do not get in there and stake a claim, future generations will condemn us as we get left behind when the economic benefits of the project begin to flow.

via AdelaideNow

It was this train that ran Australia’s first east-west rail service on standard gauge, which departed from Sydney’s Central Station on Monday, February 23 1970 and arrived in Perth on Friday, February 27 to 10,000 people.

On the train’s 40th birthday locomotive NR21 pulled the Indian Pacific from Adelaide’s Keswick Station for Sydney.

The train comprised of 24 carriages, including one locomotive and three motorail with 164 guests and 19 crew members on board.

Great Southern Rail’s Marketing and Executive Coordinator Robyn Williamson said the company is proud to be part of the train’s history.

“It’s good to be part of the history of something historic. The Indian Pacific is such an Australian icon,” she said.

Its popularity has seen it attract tens of thousands of passengers per year.

“There are people who go on trips on the Indian Pacific every year because they love it so much,” Ms Williamson said.

The 65-hour, 4,352km trip crosses the Nullarbor, the crossroad of Australia Port Augusta, historic gold-rush town Kalgoorlie and the Blue Mountains.

At 478km, the world’s longest section of railway track in the Nullarbor Plain is part of the Indian Pacific’s journey.

The Indian Pacific today can carry up to 348 passengers with 25 carriages and get up to 686 metres long.

With a two metre wing span, the wedge-tailed eagle, Australia’s largest eagle, was chosen as the Indian Pacific’s symbol to represent the train’s “epic journey,” Great Southern Rail spokesman Russell Westmoreland said to a WA Today reporter.

East-west travel by rail started in 1917 when all track sections between colonies were completed, but non-uniform gauges between the colonies meant passengers had to change several trains along the way.

The uniform standard gauge across the continent was completed in 1969.

By Anthony Caggiano for RailSA

 
 

Featured photographs of the Indian Pacific