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The GhanThe Ghan is the 48-hour, 2,979-km passenger service on the Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin Central Australian Railway in Australia. The service's name is an abbreviated version of its previous nickname The Afghan Express, which in turn comes from the Afghan camel trains which trekked the same route before the advent of the railway. History Initial construction was by South Australian Railways as a narrow gauge (3' 6") line. The tortuously curving narrow gauge line was notoriously prone to delays, often caused by flash floods washing away bridges and tracks. A decision was thus made to rebuild the entire line with a straighter alignment some 150 km east of the existing track, this time using standard gauge. | |