IntroductionAustralia doesn't have many scenic routes but in my opinion, it has enough. We have 4 famous scenic routes. These are the Indian Pacific, The Ghan, The Overland and the Great Southern. The major cities they go to are Darwin, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth. In today's blog post I will tell you about these 4 passages, how much they cost, where they go and many other things. The Indian PacificThe Indian Pacific is my favourite scenic route. It goes from my hometown, Sydney to Perth via Adelaide. It is a 4 day, 3 night journey with 9 meals. You can choose Sydney to Perth, Sydney to Adelaide and Perth to Adelaide. The train also stops in small towns such as the Blue Mountains, Broken Hill, Cook, Rawlinna, Barossa Valley and Adelaide Hills. Something that all these scenic routes offer is Off-Train excursions. Now let's get into the cost. The cheapest Sydney to Perth route is $1,819 per person. PRICY! The cheapest Sydney to Adelaide is $639 per person. A bit better. Lastly, the cheapest Adelaide to Perth service is $1,279 per person. Pretty much the only downside is that you can only fit 2 people in each Gold Cabin. Other than that, the Indian Pacific is amazing. Now you know the general facts, let see the experience. On day one, you will start in Sydney and explore NSW, including the Blue Mountains and Broken Hill. On day two, you will arrive in Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Adelaide. On day three, you will in remote Western Australia and on the last day you will arrive in Perth. The GhanThe Ghan is also an amazing route. The Ghan goes from Darwin, in the Northern Territory, to Adelaide in South Australia. This means it goes to Uluru. Probably the most iconic natural landmark in Australia. Sadly, The Ghan only goes to the Uluru in specific months, so if you want to go to Uluru, you have to plan ahead! There are two different routes. One is The Ghan and the other is The Ghan Expedition. The Ghan stops at, Katherine, Alice Springs, Marla and Manguri. The Ghan Expedition stops at, Katherine, Alice Springs, Coober Pedy and Manguri. To stop at Uluru, you must pay extra. Now to the price, The Ghan Expedition only depearts Wednesdays, April to October and the lowest price is $2,829 per person! The cheapest Ghan ticket is $1,239 per person! Still very expensive! With the Ghan, it is close to the Indian Pacific because it also provides all meals. Now here is the experience of being on The Ghan. On Day 1, you will be in Adelaide on Day 2 you will arrive in Alice Springs and on the last day you will be in Katherine and Darwin. The Great SouthernThe Great Southern is another amazing route. It goes from Adelaide to Brisbane via Melbourne, Canberra and popular regional NSW spots like Hunter Valley, Port Stephens and Newcastle. Two bad things about this route. Number one: It does not stop in Sydney even though its stops in other places in New South Wales. Number two: The Great Southern only runs every December and January. Now to the prices! There are only two routes and they both start at a whopping, $2,229 per person. From Brisbane it costs $2,839 per person! WOAH! Keep in mind that that is the cheapest ticket. If you choose to go from Adelaide to Brisbane, here is the journey. On day one you will settle into your cabin and will arrive in regional Victoria where you have a number of choices of Off Train excursions in the Grampians region. On day two, you will arrive in Canberra where you will spend the whole day there. You will be able to choose from the many wonders there such as the War Memorial, Parliament House, National Gallery and so many more. On day three you will arrive in Coffs Harbour and you will have again a large range of Off Train Excursions before you have your final lunch and arrive in Brisbane. ConclusionNow I won't write about the Overland because it only goes from Adelaide to Melbourne and doesn't give you a true scenic train experience like the Indian Pacific and The Ghan do. Overall, Australia has some wonderful scenic routes. Thank you so much for reading this week's blog post.
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I will update this post regularly. It will tell you when a new podcast episode will appear or when a new blog post gets posted. The next post and podcast episode will be posted before this Sunday 12th September. The topic will be The Japan High Speed Rail. Next episodes include, Perth Airport Metro, Shanghai Maglev and Australian High Speed Rail. If you would like to suggest a topic, please leave a comment below. Thank You!
BLOG 7 Introduction to the ProgramAs you may know, NSW and all of Australia for that fact, does not have high speed rail. It does have regional rail and Interstate rail as well as scenic passages such as The Ghan and the Indian Pacific but none of these rail links are high speed. There is a simple reason to why Australia still doesn't have High Speed Rail. It's because we have so much farmland which is in the way of making track. Luckily, Australia's and New South Wales' government has got a plan. Today I will be telling you about this plan, where it will go, when it will open and so many more things about New South Wales' High Speed Rail. Planning is nearly complete and construction is on its way. Where will the Rail go?The New South Wales High Speed Rail won't have just one route. It will have many routes. The first one will be going through the T1 line and the Blue Mountains before going through Lithgow, Bathurst and terminating in Orange and Parkes. The second line will be the Central Coast line. It will also go through existing track, up to Newcastle and go through new track such as Gosford and Port Macquarie where the train will terminate. The third line will be going through the T4 line until Wollongong and go all the way to Nowra in the South Coast. To top it all off, the last line will be the most popular line. It will connect Sydney by High Speed Rail to Goulburn and Canberra. Sadly, nothing has been planned to go to other states and cities like Melbourne and Brisbane. Maybe something like this will be thought about later. How long will it take to get from one place to another?The High Speed Rail network will slash travel times massively. Here are some of the times from major cities and stations. From Sydney to Canberra, it currently takes 4 hours and 7 minutes on normal rail and on High Speed Rail it will be a short 1 hour. That's 3 hours and 7 minutes faster! From Sydney to Newcastle it currently takes 2 hours and 35 minutes on train. With the High Speed Rail, it will take 45 minutes! I'm not going to type them all out but I will leave a picture of the timetable at the bottom of this blog. More things about the project.Because Australia is absolutely clueless about what they are doing, they are learning from other networks in Japan, the UK and France. They also teamed up with many different teams in the UK to learn more about new High Speed Rail projects in the United Kingdom. If you want to learn more about the High Speed Rail project, please click on the link here: New South Wales High Speed Rail. BLOG 6 Introduction to the ProjectThis project isn't an amazing high budget metro or train infrastructure project but this time it's about TRAMS! Sydney has 3 tram lines right now. The first line goes from Central to Dulwich Hill. The second line goes from Circular Quay to Kingsford and the last line goes from Circular Quay to Randwick. The fourth line will be located mainly in the newly opened Parramatta CBD. Rundown of the ProjectCurrently 1 stage of the project is confirmed and the second stage is already vaguely planned out. The Parramatta Light Rail will connect the communities on the closed Carlingford line to the newly built Parramatta CBD. The first line will be connected to Westmead and then it will go into Parramatta, go up the old T6 line and terminate in Carlingford near Pennant Hills. The second line will go from Camellia through to Olympic Park via Rydalmere, Ermington, Melrose Park and Wentworth Point. Cool Stats about the network.The first line will have 16 stops. They include, Westmead Station, Westmead Hospital, Westmead Children's Hospital, Cumberland Hospital, Factory Street, Fennel Street, Prince Alfred Square, Eat Street, Parramatta Square, Harris Street, Tramway Avenue, Camelia, Rydalmere, Dundas, Telopea and Carlingford. The second line will include 10 - 12 stops and the stops have not be concluded. The project will open in 2023.
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AuthorI'd love to share my knowledge about trains with the world. Archives
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