Great Southern Railway

Great Southern Railway (GSR), 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 and Overland were operated until 1997 by Australian National Railways. As a Government enterprise, it was always unprofitable. The Australian Commonwealth sold ANR Passenger and Freight in 1997. Great Southern Railway was a consorti... more

Great Southern Railway (GSR), 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 and Overland were operated until 1997 by Australian National Railways. As a Government enterprise, it was always unprofitable. The Australian Commonwealth sold ANR Passenger and Freight in 1997. Great Southern Railway was a consortium of Macquarie Bank, Serco Plc, and GB Railways. GSR took over the operation of the Indian Pacific, The Ghan and The Overland passenger trains, and has operated them profitably since that time. Costs were reduced by renegotiating staff pay and conditions, and 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... less