Preceded by a number of other shorter railways, a transcontinental line through to Darwin was only fully realised in 2004, when the final link from Alice Springs was opened.

The infrastructure of the CAR was inadequate for the increased tonnages to be carried, so the federal government funded a new standard gauge line from Stirling North to the coalfields, and on to Marree to provide cattle transport.

[9] Construction of the current 828 km (515 mi) kilometre line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs began in April 1975, opening in October 1980.

[4] In 1983, the federal government announced its intention to extend the standard gauge line from Alice Springs to Darwin to complete the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor.

[4] In June 1999, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation, a company owned by the Northern Territory and South Australian Governments, was awarded the contract to build and operate a 1420 km (880 mi) Alice Springs to Darwin line as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer project to the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium (APTC).

[24] Genesee & Wyoming Australia, later acquired by Aurizon, purchased the assets of FreightLink in June 2010 for $334 million, including the 50-year lease on the Tarcoola–Darwin line.

[15][25] As of 2024[update], the line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs is owned by the Australian Rail Track Corporation and leased until 2047 to Aurizon.

[26][27] The line from Alice Springs to Darwin is owned by Aurizon until 2054, when ownership will pass to the Australian Government and the build–own–operate–and–transfer agreement will end.

[29][note 1] Two experiential tourism trains operate on the line: The Ghan service operated by Journey Beyond, which traverses the whole line and through to Adelaide weekly in each direction, with a scheduled duration of 53  hours 15 minutes;[30]: 108  and the company's Indian Pacific, an east–west service that runs on the southernmost 727 km (452 mi) before heading west to Perth.

[31] Following a derailment event in December 2011,[32] Oz Minerals elected to use the line to export to the south via Port Adelaide.

In financial year 2010–11, export product delivered to Port Darwin by rail – comprising iron ore, manganese, and copper concentrate – exceeded 3 million tonnes for the first time.