Indian Pacific

The Indian Pacific began running in 1970 when the last gauge break was closed, linking two oceans by rail across four thousand three hundred kilometres and three time zones, from Sydney over the Blue Mountains, through Broken Hill and Adelaide, across the Nullarbor and into Perth. Its most quoted statistic is the 478-kilometre dead-straight section over the Nullarbor, the longest in the world, on which the train runs for hours with no curve at all. Off-train excursions stop at Broken Hill, Adelaide and Kalgoorlie, and at Rawlinna, a tiny siding on the Nullarbor, passengers get out for dinner under the stars. Fares are all-inclusive.

What you actually see

• The Nullarbor straight - 478 kilometres without a curve.
• The Rawlinna dinner - the outdoor meal at a siding in the middle of nowhere.
• The off-train stops - Broken Hill, Adelaide and Kalgoorlie excursions.
• The ocean-to-ocean crossing - four days from the Pacific to the Indian.

When to go

March to October, avoiding the worst summer heat across the Nullarbor; services run about weekly with seasonal variation and sell out for peak dates. Fares fluctuate significantly by season and cabin class.

Honest expectations

The journey is expensive and slow compared with flying, which is the point but catches some travellers out. The Nullarbor section is visually monotonous by design. Cabins are small, and the schedule of excursions is fixed.

Nearby

Sydney and Perth are the terminals; Adelaide, Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie are stops.