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The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is a federal government owned corporation established in 1997 that owns, leases, maintains and controls the majority of main line standard gauge railway lines on the mainland of Australia, known as the Designated Interstate Rail Network (DIRN).
While railways in some states were briefly operated as private companies, railways of Australia have historically operated as Government instrumentalities. The earlier form of a single state government railway department in each state no longer exists – with complex relationships developed by state and federal government corporations operating in multiple locations and across borders between ...
Australia is the only continent to offer both east–west and north–south transcontinental trains: The Indian Pacific from Sydney on the Pacific to Perth on the Indian Oceans, and The Ghan from Adelaide on the southern shores of the continent to Darwin on the northern shore.
Urban networks are further classified as "light rail" or "heavy rail". [1] Light rail in Australia includes established tram networks in Melbourne and Adelaide continuously operating in various forms since the 19th century, as well as networks in other cities newly constructed after the cessation of tram operation.
The interstate rail network of the former Australian National Railways was transferred to the newly established Australian Rail Track Corporation in 1998. In 2002, the Tarcoola–Alice Springs line was leased to the AustralAsia Rail Corporation .
Map of rail lines in NSW. The Australian state of New South Wales has an extensive network of railways, which were integral to the growth and development of the state. The vast majority of railway lines were government built and operated, but there were also several private railways, some of which operate to this day.
In the southern half of Western Australia, the railways were all 1067mm gauge and there was no standard gauge rail at all, apart from the Trans-Australian Railway running from the east to Kalgoorlie. In the 1960s the Commonwealth and Western Australian Government decide to build a standard gauge railway from Kalgoorlie to Perth.
The Trans-Australian Railway, opened in 1917, runs from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, crossing the Nullarbor Plain in the process. As the only rail freight corridor between Western Australia and the eastern states, the line is economically and strategically important.