Great Southern Rail, owned by Serco Asia Pacific, is a tourism business and rail transport operator in Australia. GSR operates interstate passenger trains aimed at the tourist market: ⁕The Ghan ⁕Indian Pacific ⁕The Overland ⁕The Southern Spirit The Ghan, Indian Pacific and The Overland were operated until 1997 by the Federal Government's Australian National. In October 1997 the services were sold to Great Southern Rail, a consortium of GB Railways, Legal & General, Macquarie Bank, RailAmerica, G13 Pty Ltd and Serco. In October 1999 Serco bought all the shares from its consortium partners. While the former two services are profitable, the operation of The Overland is subsidised by the Victorian and South Australian governments. GSR reduced costs by renegotiating staff pay and conditions, and increased revenues by extending the Ghan, which originally ran from Adelaide to Alice Springs, so that it ran once each week from Sydney and once each week from Melbourne. With completion of the railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Ghan now runs from Adelaide to Darwin. While GSR owns the passenger car fleet, Pacific National provides motive power for the services. Wikipedia [ - ]

Great Southern Rail, owned by Serco Asia Pacific, is a tourism business and rail transport... [ + ]