Ghan Train Service Suspended Due to Heavy Rain

Well fortunately they were able to stop the train before it hit the flooded section of track:

Passengers almost halfway through a train journey across Australia have had to turn back because of flooding in the desert.

The Ghan, travelling from Darwin to Adelaide, was 230 kilometres north of Alice Springs when it came across a flooded section of track.

Great Southern Rail’s commercial director Russell Westmoreland says the decision to turn back the train was unavoidable.

“We can’t control the weather, so our role is to do the best we can to get people back on track after that,” he said.

The company says 280 guests are affected.

Freightlink owns the line and spokesman Tony Aldridge says it is too wet to start repairs.

“There’s still significant surface water residing in the area at this point in time and it’s going to take a couple of days for the area to dry out sufficiently,” he said.

The Ghan and its passengers are due to arrive back in Darwin tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile heavy rain around Alice Springs has also caused the partial closure of the Stuart Highway.

The Department of Infrastructure says flooding 50 kilometres north of Alice Springs has made the road impassable to all but high-clearance four-wheel drives.  [ABC News]

As many of you reading this know, my wife and I have traveled on the Ghan train twice and even though the train travels through mostly desolate Outback there are still many bridge crossing over dry river beds and when the ground in the Outback gets wet it gets extremely muddy which would only further make train travel dangerous.