Longest passenger train in scheduled service

The longest passenger train in scheduled service is The Ghan, a weekly sleeper service that runs between Adelaide and Darwin in Australia. The length of the trains vary according to passenger numbers, but a typical service comprises two locomotives and 30 carriages, giving a total length of 774 m (2,359 ft). During periods of high demand, the trains are sometimes extended to up to 44 carriages and a total length of 1,096 m (3,595 ft).

The service's name is an abbreviated version of its old nickname, "The Afghan Express" – thought to have been bestowed on it either as a reference to the Afghan camel drivers who used to ply the same route, or as a joke about the famous unreliability of the service during the age of steam.

There have been longer passenger trains assembled for one-off events or specific charters, but the Ghan is the longest train that operates a regular service. Journeys on the Ghan take three days, and pass through the heart of the Australian outback.

The Ghan's route has been revised and re-engineered several times over the course of its 90-year history. The earliest incarnations of the service involved a mixture of narrow-gauge, broad-gauge and standard-gauge trains (as well as occasional camel trains and buses) running between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The route was modernized from 1979 onwards, with the narrow-gauge and broad-gauge sections being replaced with standard-gauge track by 1982, and the line extended all the way to Darwin in 2004.