The Ghan of the sidings. In October 1980, a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs on the Trans-Australian Railway opened, and the train took the form it has today. The new line is approximately west of the former line in order to avoid floodplains where the original line was often washed away during heavy rain. It was also hoped that the construction of the new line would improve the train's timekeeping. In November 1998, one service per week was extended from Adelaide to Melbourne while from April 1999, the other was diverted to operate to Sydney. Construction of Alice
Esther Ghan Firestone 30 Mar 1962. Esther Ghan Firestone Esther Ghan Firestone (1925 – 28 May 2015) was the first female cantor in Canada, although she was not ordained. She began as a cantor in the mid-1950s at Toronto’s Temple Beth-El, and worked in Toronto at Temple Beth-El (mid-1950s to mid-1960s), Temple Emanu-El (1977), and later at Congregation Habonim Toronto from 1985 until some time in 2015. She was also a member of Kol Nashim (Hebrew for “All Women”), a sextet of female lay cantors founded in 1987. Aside from her cantorial work, she was a singer; after training as a pianist in