🇦🇺 Country
Train routes in Australia
26 routes · classic 6 · night train 5 · scenic 3 · heritage 7 · mountain 2 · luxury 3
26 routes cross Australia in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the Indian Pacific at 4,352 km; the fastest is the Melbourne XPT, running up to 160 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1854. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →Classic (6)
- Spirit of Queensland
A tilting train with lie-flat “railbeds” running the Coral Sea coast toward the Great Barrier Reef.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Overland
Running since 1887 as the Intercolonial Express, Australia’s oldest interstate rail journey now crosses the Wimmera wheat belt twice weekly.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Prospector
Australia’s fastest diesel railcars shadow the 1903 goldfields water pipeline across the Wheatbelt to Kalgoorlie’s Golden Mile.
Wikipedia ↗ - Electric Tilt Train
The world’s fastest narrow-gauge train: it set Australia’s rail speed record of 210 km/h in 1999 and still tilts through cane country at 160 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Canberra Xplorer
The only passenger train to Australia’s capital: three Xplorer railcars a day take the 1914 branch past the wind farms above Lake George.
Wikipedia ↗ - Outback Xplorer
Weekly railcar over the Blue Mountains and out past Parkes into the saltbush: thirteen hours from Sydney Central to the silver town on the South Australian border.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (5)
- Melbourne XPT
Australia’s InterCity 125 cousin runs the overnight between its two biggest rivals, cricket ashes optional.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brisbane XPT
The overnight run still books twin sleepers as it corkscrews through the Border Loop spiral, blasted through rainforest ranges in 1932.
Wikipedia ↗ - Spirit of the Outback
Up the coast to Rockhampton, then dead west into Matilda country: sleepers and the Tuckerbox diner, 1,325 km to the stockman’s capital.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Inlander
Queensland’s grand old night train since 1953. Coral Sea to Cloncurry’s red plains and the smokestacks of Mount Isa, 977 unhurried kilometres.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Westlander
Over the Toowoomba range by night and out across the Darling Downs: twice a week until the wheat gives way to mulga at Charleville.
Wikipedia ↗
Scenic (3)
- Kuranda Scenic Railway
Navvies hand-carved 15 tunnels and 37 bridges up Barron Gorge in the 1880s; trains still pause at the falls’ lookout above the rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗ - The Gulflander
“From nowhere to nowhere” once a week: the 1891 Gulf line’s hollow steel sleepers shrug off every wet-season flood; the old railmotor just keeps going.
Wikipedia ↗ - Blue Mountains Line
Climbs from near sea level to 1,017 m at Katoomba through a UNESCO-listed maze of sandstone cliffs and eucalypt canyons.
Wikipedia ↗
Heritage (7)
- Puffing Billy Railway
Legs out the window over Monbulk Creek trestle: century-old narrow-gauge steam through Dandenongs fern gullies, Australia’s best-loved heritage line.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pichi Richi Railway
The original Ghan route through Pichi Richi Pass: 1879 stonework, volunteer-run steam and the 1928 “Barwell Bull” railcar to quaint Quorn.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mary Valley Rattler
A 1920s C17 barks out of Gympie across Deep Creek bridge: the 1915 fruit branch through the Mary Valley, saved twice and steaming on weekends.
Wikipedia ↗ - Byron Bay Solar Train
The world’s first fully solar-powered train: a 1949 “red rattler” gliding three kilometres of resurrected line to Byron Bay’s beaches.
Wikipedia ↗ - Savannahlander
Sixty-year-old railmotors take two unhurried days to cover 424 km from coastal rainforest to the 1910 gold-rush railhead at Forsayth.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cockle Train
Rides Australia’s oldest steel-railed public route, opened in 1854 with horse haulage to link Murray riverboats to the sea.
Wikipedia ↗ - Zig Zag Railway
A 19th-century engineering marvel in the Blue Mountains: trains reverse down a rock-cut Z of sandstone viaducts that once carried the main western line off the plateau.
Wikipedia ↗
Mountain (2)
- West Coast Wilderness Railway
The 1896 copper railway hauls itself up 1-in-16 grades on Abt rack cogs, steaming once more from Queenstown’s bare hills into the King River rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗ - Katoomba Scenic Railway
The Guinness-listed steepest passenger railway on earth: a 52-degree plunge into the Jamison Valley on an 1880s coal-mine incline.
Wikipedia ↗
Luxury (3)
- The Ghan
Named for the Afghan cameleers: 2,979 km straight through the Red Centre, completed to Darwin only in 2004.
Wikipedia ↗ - Indian Pacific
Ocean to ocean across Australia, including the world’s longest railway straight: 478 dead-level kilometres on the Nullarbor.
Wikipedia ↗ - Great Southern
The Ghan’s summer sibling. Adelaide to Brisbane the long way round, with Grampians sunsets, Canberra and a Coffs Harbour beach stop en route.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence
What is the fastest train in Australia?
The Melbourne XPT, running Sydney to Melbourne at up to 160 km/h. It is one of 26 routes in Australia in this atlas.
Are there night trains in Australia?
Yes — 5 sleeper services in this atlas serve Australia: Melbourne XPT (Sydney – Melbourne), Brisbane XPT (Sydney – Brisbane), Spirit of the Outback (Brisbane – Longreach), The Inlander (Townsville – Mount Isa), and others.
Can you cross the border by train from Australia?
No route in this atlas crosses a land border out of Australia. Every line listed here begins and ends inside the country.
Which is the most scenic railway in Australia?
Australia has 5 scenic or mountain lines in this atlas. The longest is the Blue Mountains Line, 156 km.