Going the Distance: An Auto-ethnographic Chronicle of Tourist and Traveller Trains in Australia

Interstate trains in Australia as elsewhere in the world have never recovered from the inroads into their markets made by airliners and automobiles. Rail networks were rationalised, lines closed and there was a concentration on suburban and inter-city services with high passenger loads. The services that survived the resultant rail rationalisation now service two constituencies of travellers: those needing to travel by rail for health and other reasons and those choosing to do so because they treasure the experience of long distance rail travel. In order to service the latter, there is now in Australia a market for tourist trains, which unlike traveller trains operate on select routes, offering a range of allures and attractions, both on and off the tracks. This paper compares the experiences of travelling on a tourist train with that of travelling on traveller trains and argues that both are inscribed with a secondary experience, one that the traveller and the tourist does not necessarily encounter, the history of Australian rail.

Keywords: Australian rail history, Indian Pacific, intercontinental trains, luxury trains, mobility theory, tourists/travellers.