[1] The terminal is north of the suburb of Keswick, 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) by road south-west of the city centre, and adjoins the south-western sector of the West Parklands.

It was included in the sale of Australian National's passenger operations to Great Southern Rail in 1997.

[3] In June 2008, the station was renamed Adelaide Parklands Terminal[4] following Stage One of a plan to "improve guest comfort and amenity, traffic and passenger movement, food and retail facilities, image, identity, presentation and sustainability".

[5] The terminal was built by Australian National as a dual gauge station for The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Trans-Australian to the north and The Overland to the south-east – the latter train being on 1600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad-gauge tracks at the time, before conversion to 1435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) in 1995.

Since 1991, the only trains regularly operating out of the terminal have been The Ghan, Indian Pacific and The Overland; The Southern Spirit ran seasonally between 2010 and 2012, and the Great Southern commenced seasonal services in 2020.