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Great South Pacific Express

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Australian train service (1999–2003)

Great South Pacific Express
Overview
Service typeTourist train
StatusCeased
First serviceApril 1999
Last serviceJune 2003
Former operator(s)Queensland Rail (90%)
Orient-Express Hotels (10%)
Technical
Track gauge1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

The Great South Pacific Express was a luxury Australian train service, run in by Queensland Rail and Belmond, the operator of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express.

History

In December 1996, Queensland Rail announced it would enter a 90/10 joint venture with Orient-Express Hotels to operate a luxury tourist train between Kuranda (near Cairns) and Sydney. It commenced operating in April 1999. The train accommodated 100 passengers in up to 21 carriages, at a cost of $3,500 to $5,500 depending on type of accommodation. The train also made occasional excursions to Canberra, Melbourne, the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley.

The service ceased in June 2003, having run up losses of around $12 million over four years.

After the demise of the service the carriages were sold to Orient-Express Hotels for an undisclosed price in 2005, for use on its trains overseas. Twenty of the carriages remained in storage at the North Ipswich Railway Workshops, with Queensland Rail stating an Orient Express holding company owned them, while an Orient Express Hotels manager in London said they were still owned by Queensland Rail.

In 2013, the Queensland Government approached the Venice-Simplon Orient Express for permission to operate the remaining carriages on tours in Queensland.

In February 2016, the carriages were moved from the Workshops Rail Museum at Ipswich to the Port of Brisbane for shipment to Peru for use by the Orient Express Hotels' successor, Belmond, and its partly-owned railroad company PeruRail. The train entered service in May 2017 as the Belmond Andean Explorer, carrying passengers from Cusco to Puno (at the Lake Titicaca) and to Arequipa.

Rolling stock

The 21 carriages were built at the Queensland Rail workshops in Townsville for $35 million. They were built to operate on both the narrow 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge in Queensland and 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge in New South Wales with the train undergoing a bogie exchange en route at Acacia Ridge.

The train consisted of sleeping cars in three different comfort levels (Pullman, State and Commissioner Suites), two dining cars, two bar cars (one of them with an open-air observation deck), a power car and staff sleepers. The entire train layout was designed similar to the Eastern & Oriental Express, but with a different interior style.

References

  1. QR joins with Orient Express to Operate Luxury Train Railway Digest February 1997 page 17
  2. VSOE to launch a luxury train in Australia Rail issue issue 302 9 April 1997 page 9
  3. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 738 April 1999 page 153
  4. QR's Great South Pacific Express Enters Service Railway Digest May 1999 page 9
  5. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 740 June 1999 page 228
  6. "Welcome to The International Railway Traveler (IRT)". irtsociety.com. Archived from the original on 8 February 2003. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  7. ^ Great South Pacific Express Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 728 June 1998 pages 232-238
  8. Great South Pacific Express Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 758 December 2000 pages 443-455
  9. World in Brief International Railway Journal May 2003 page 5
  10. Great South Pacific Express Continental Railway Journal issue 135 October 2003 page 46
  11. ^ "QR sells Great South Pacific Express". Travel Weekly. 20 September 2005. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  12. Queensland's luxury Orient Express train still sits idle in Ipswich after five years The Courier-Mail 4 October 2010
  13. QR sells Great South Pacific Express Railway Digest November 2005 page 11
  14. Ian Townsend (3 October 2010). "Luxury train stuck in limbo". ABC News. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  15. Thompson, Tuck (21 September 2013). "Queensland's own 'Orient Express' emerges from storage at The Workshops Rail Museum at Ipswich". Courier Mail.
  16. "Great train mystery solved as luxury carriages ship out". Queensland Times. 25 February 2016.
  17. "Belmond Andean Explorer - Luxury Train Travel To Machu Picchu, Peru". Belmond. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  18. The Great South Pacific Express goes west Railway Digest April 2019 page 52
  19. Here & There Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin issue 741 July 1999 page 284
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