Sydney–Perth rail corridor

As of 2008[update],[needs update] the rail corridor carried 81 per cent of land freight between the eastern states and Perth, up from 60 per cent in 1996–97;[3] and in November 2007, 3.46 billion gross tonne-kilometres of freight was carried, a record at the time.

[4] [5] As of 2022[update], major freight operators on the corridor included Pacific National, Aurizon, and SCT Logistics.

The Indian Pacific, an experiential tourism passenger train, operates along the entire route, with the journey typically taking three days.

[6] Its sister train, The Ghan, travels over part of the corridor – from Adelaide to Tarcoola – before it proceeds north to Darwin.

Until the route was converted to standard gauge in 1970, differing choices of track gauges by three state governments required passengers and freight to be trans-shipped at Broken Hill, Port Pirie, and Kalgoorlie.

The 4352 kilometres (2704 mi) east–west rail corridor, which includes the 1691 kilometres (1051 mi) historically significant Trans-Australian Railway in the middle (click to enlarge)
Leaving Kewdale Freight Terminal , Western Australia, is a typical freight train of the East–west rail corridor, with three locomotives totalling 9340 hp (10,490 kW) power output, a crew car , and a train of up to 1.8  km of container cars (many of them double-stacked )