Trans Karoo Express Trans Karoo Express The Trans Karoo Express, or simply Trans Karoo, was a South African express passenger train service which travelled an approximately journey between Johannesburg and Cape Town. It operated daily in each direction, meaning that there were in fact two "Trans Karoos" - they passed each other during the night, heading in opposite directions. The service was operated by Spoornet, the national railway company. The "Trans Karoo" was named from the Great Karoo scrubland, one of the most extensive geographical features of southern Africa, across which the train operated. The route was identical to that operated by the
Karoo later years, when not only the feathers were sought after, but also ostrich leather, and its meat, which is very tasty, and a major export item. Today, several farms can be visited by tourists, near Oudtshoorn, the center of the ostrich industry. The first European settlers landed in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, and between 1659 and 1664, made several unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the Great Karoo from the south-west. The Europeans who first entered the Great Karoo did so from the south-east (traveling north from Algoa Bay), which is slightly less arid than the western Karoo. These