What is train travel in Australia like?

Train travel in Australia is functional on commuter lines, inconvenient on intercity trains and expensively luxurious on long distance tourist trains.

Train travel in Australia is a bit of a black sheep. For most intercity journeys, people tend to either drive or take domestic flights. This is partly because the country has long been set up around the car, and partly because distances are so big.

Train travel in Australia: Types of train

That said, it is possible to travel around Australia by train. It’s just that plumping for rail over road or air is rarely the quickest or most convenient way to travel.

Rail journeys in Australia tend to fall into one of three categories. There are no frills commuter services, tourist trains and frustratingly infrequent intercity services with decent but hardly lavish facilities.

Australian commuter services are generally within the big cities, although they sometimes link smaller cities that are close enough. Sydney’s commuter network stretches to the Central Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong. These commuter services are the only reasonably frequent train services in the country. For everything else, the network may be reasonably extensive, but you’re extremely lucky to get more than one train per hour. And sometimes it’s not even one a day.

Tourist trains in Australia

Tourist trains come in two broad types – short novelty pootles and country-spanning epic multi-day journeys on luxury trains. The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin and Indian Pacific train from Perth to Adelaide or Sydney to Perth fall into this bracket. They come with all food, drinks and side tours thrown in.

The Ghan train at Elizabeth River in the Northern Territory. Photo courtesy of Great Southern Rail.

Other journeys are shorter, on otherwise disused railway lines and often involving steam trains. Examples include the Cockle Train in South Australia, which goes along Encounter Bay from Goolwa to Victor Harbor, and the Walhalla Goldfields Railway in West Gippsland, Victoria.

Train times in Australia

Australia Travel Questions is increasing its coverage of individual rail journeys in Australia. The following routes are currently covered. Journey times have been listed to give an idea of how long the trains take.