The Ghan The Ghan The Ghan is an Australian passenger train service between Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin railway. Operated by Great Southern Rail, it takes 54 hours to travel the with a four-hour stopover in Alice Springs. The service's name is an abbreviated version of its previous nickname, "The Afghan Express". The nickname is reputed to have been bestowed in 1923 by one of its crews. Some suggest the train's name honours Afghan camel drivers who arrived in Australia in the late 19th century to help the British colonisers find a way to reach the country's interior. A
The Ghan along the track so that bore water could be used. When a new line to Alice Springs was built in the 1970s, the use of diesel locomotives meant that there was far less need for water, thus allowing the line to take the much drier route from Tarcoola to Alice Springs. The original Ghan was featured in an episode of BBC Television's series "Great Railway Journeys of the World" in 1980, presented by Michael Frayn. The original Ghan ran for the last time in 1980, and the Ghan Preservation Society repairs sections of the old narrow gauge track and some