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 10–20 km from the foot of the Swartberg mountains is least karoo-like, in that it is a well-watered area both from the rain and the many streams that cascade down the mountain, or through narrow defiles in the Swartberg from the Great Karoo. The main towns of the region are situated along this northern strip of the Little Karoo: Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn, and De Rust, as well as such well-known mission stations such as Zoar, Amalienstein, and Dysselsdorp. The southern 30– to 50-km-wide strip, north of the Langeberg range, is as arid as the western Lower Karoo, except