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I lived in Australia from 1999 to 2004.  It has some really neat trains, but they are not high speed trains.The quickest train runs daily from Brisbane, Queensland, to Rockhampton, Queensland.  Three days a week it goes to Cairns.  Its maximum speed is 160 kilometers or 100 miles per hour, although there are only a few short stretches where it achieves these speeds.  The train is called the Tilt Train because it incorporates tilt train technology.  The train to Cairns leaves Brisbane at 6:25 p.m. and gets to Cairns at 7:20 p.m.  The times are somewhat different when the train is only going as far as Rockhampton.  Interestingly, the QR is a narrow gauge railway, albeit a first class property.The Tilt Train has business class and coach class carriages.  I rode it twice from Brisbane to Townsville.  It is very comfortable.   Meals are served at the passenger's seat, thereby eliminating the cost associated with restaurant cars.  Even though it is an overnight train three days a week, it does not have any sleeping or lounge cars.  Passengers have a variety of entertainment options.  They can even switch to a camera mounted in the nose of the locomotive and watch the track roll by.Another interesting QR train is The Outback.  It runs from Brisbane to Long Reach, which amongst other things is the home of the Qantas Airline's Museum.  Qantas, which is one of the oldest, continuous airlines in the world, got its start in 1926 in Longreach.  All of Qantas' 747-400s are named Longreach.  Initially I thought it was because of the long reach, i.e. non-stop capabilities of the airplane, but it turned out that they are named for Longreach, Queensland.  A trip to Longreach on The Outback is a great way to see the Australian Outback. The train that runs across Australia, at least from east to west, is the Indian Pacific.  I took it from Sydney to Perth.  It is a three day journey on conventional equipment.  The cars are 1950s vintage that were built in Australia under a license granted by Budd.  The trip includes the longest stretch of straight track in the world - 298.5 miles.  The train runs through the Blue Mountains, which are awesome, and across The Nullarbor Desert.  At Broken Hill, which is the home of the Flying Doctors, Adelaide, and Kalgoorlie, where a large open pit gold mine is located, passengers can de-train and take a bus tour of these locations.  They are a very worthwhile interlude. The other two trains that I have ridden are the Overland between Adelaide and Melbourne and the City Link between Melbourne and Sydney.  The Overland is equipped with cars similar to those found on the Indian Pacific, but the City Link is a bullet style train that bears a sharp resemblance to the Acela and Tilt Train.  I go back to Australia every 15 months or thereabout, and I include at least one cross country train trip while I am there.  This year I am going in February.  I plan to fly to Adelaide.  Then I will take the Overland to Melbourne, where I lived, and then the City Link to Sydney.  The only premier Australian train that I have not ridden is the Ghan, which runs from Adelaide to Darwin.
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