Indian Pacific

Ocean to ocean across Australia, including the world’s longest railway straight: 478 dead-level kilometres on the Nullarbor.

The journey exists because 1970 finally brought a single standard-gauge track from coast to coast, and the inaugural train was mobbed at every siding. Today it climbs the Blue Mountains out of Sydney, pauses in Broken Hill’s mining moonscape and in Adelaide, then settles into the Nullarbor, where travellers step down at Cook, population about four, to stand in the ringing desert silence. Gold-rush Kalgoorlie arrives after dark before the Avon Valley delivers you to Perth.

Stations

1. 0 kmCentral
2. 2,419 kmCook
3. 2,906 kmRawlinna
4. 3,284 kmKalgoorlie
5. 3,937 kmEast Perth Terminal

The stations OpenStreetMap lists for this service, in order, with the distance along the line as drawn here. A train may skip some of them.

Along the way

• Blue Mountains sandstone country
• Broken Hill’s outback skyline
• Adelaide stopover
• Cook ghost town on the Nullarbor
• gold-rush Kalgoorlie
• Avon Valley into Perth

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 2033217 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 43 m of them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 10 m from it
• The operator publishes this line's timetable: Journey Beyond — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Indian Pacific?

The Indian Pacific runs 4,352 km from Sydney to Perth.

How long does the Indian Pacific take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 65 h for the 4,352 km. That is an average of 67 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 115 km/h.

Who runs the Indian Pacific?

Journey Beyond, with Expedition sleeper.

How old is the Indian Pacific?

The line has been in service since 1970. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How often does the Indian Pacific run?

1× weekly each way, year-round.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗