In Australia a kilometrical passenger-train appeared
Consequently, the renewed ‘Ghan’ became the longest train in Australia. On Sunday, on the 22-nd of May it started its first trip in this year across the whole country – from Southern Adelaide to Northern Darwin. The trip has taken almost three days and nights.
The average speed of ‘Ghan’ is 85 kilometers an hour. It may take run up to 116 kilometers an hour. The general weigh is nearly 2.2 thousand tons. Two locomotives pull this train. Annually from May to August the train runs from the South of Australia to the North.
Steve Kernaghan, the sales director of the enterprise Great Southern Rail that owns ‘Ghan’ claimed that the train which hit the records of length reflects the increased demand of Australians on railway travels.
The travel name Ghan is the reduction from its former denomination The Afghan Express. The train formation was called like that in honor of Afghan camel drivers who came to Australia in XIX century to investigate the distant corners of this country.
The first train ‘Ghan’ took the road in 1929. In 1980 it was pensioned off and it gave place to the new train formation.
The longest passenger-train in the world is considered to be the train from Belgium – the formation from 70 carriages with the total weight of 2.7 thousand tons and length of more than 1.7 kilometers – was put into operation in 1991.
