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Legend
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"The Southern Spirit" is a luxury rail cruise train in Australia, operated by Great Southern Railway (GSR). The train was launched in June 2008 and was planned to travel all over Australia, with the first service originally planned to have run in November 2008. The train was planned to operate from November to February each year, and combine train travel with overnight hotel stays, and other experiences similar to land excursions during sea cruises.[2]
Nearly all of the originally planned journeys did not happen. "The Grand Tour",[3] (the inaugural journey), was re-planned for 22 January 2009.[4]
The first trip actually took place on 9 January 2010,[5] travelling from Uluru to Brisbane over 13 nights. The itinerary included Kings Canyon and Alice Springs (Northern Territory), Coober Pedy and Kangaroo Island (South Australia), Philip Island (Victoria) and Hunter Valley (New South Wales).
Additional journeys ran June 2010 and November-December 2011. Further journeys are planned for February and May 2012.
Passengers on the train are accommodated in five new 'Platinum class' carriages constructed at a cost of $12 million, with compartments twice the size of the 'Gold class' carriages on other GSR services, and feature double beds rather than two bunks. At the end of the cruise season, the carriages will be used on The Ghan. The cost of each tour is between $7000 and $14,000 depending on the cruise and the class of travel.[6] Haulage of the train is provided by Pacific National NR class locomotives, as with other GSR services. NR85 was repainted into a special livery for the train in September 2008,[7] as was NR84.
Each rail cruise during a season was intended to cover a different route, travelling to cities already visited by GSR such as Katherine, Darwin, Adelaide, Perth, and Sydney; and tourist locations that are not, such as Brisbane, Canberra, Coffs Harbour, and the Hunter Valley. Since 2010 the tours have concentrated on Adelaide and Melbourne to Brisbane.
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