Spirit of the Outback


The Spirit of the Outback is a long-distance passenger rail service in Queensland, Australia, operated by Queensland Rail's Traveltrain division. It operates between Brisbane and Longreach.

History

The service commenced in November 1993 by combining the former Capricornian and Midlander (Queensland Rail)|Midlander] trains.
In January 2015, the service was upgraded with refurbished L series carriages. At this time the M series carriages and Motorail services were also withdrawn. While the Tuckerbox was retained, the Stockman's Bar and Captain Starlight Lounge were withdrawn and replaced with the Shearer's Rest Lounge.
In June 2021, the Queensland government announced $1million for a business case to build replacement carriages for The Westlander, The Inlander and Spirit of the Outback long-distance services with manufacturing to be set in Queensland.

Rolling stock

The Spirit of the Outback has two classes of travel:
  • Economy, with a seat.
  • Sleepers, including:
  • *'Single Sleeper', with a seat that converts into a bed
  • *'Twin Sleeper', with two seats that convert into two beds

    Incident

On 18 November 2000, 3W56 Longreach-bound Spirit of the Outback came within 50 metres of colliding head-on with a Gladstone-bound coal train. The close call occurred 15kilometres west of Dingo when the coal train proceeded through a red signal and entered the same section of track the Spirit of the Outback was travelling on. At the time of the incident, there were fifty passengers on board the Spirit of the Outback. When the crew of the coal train realised the danger, they applied their emergency brakes and contacted the crew of the Spirit of the Outback who also applied their emergency brakes. Both trains were able to stop in time before a head on collision occurred. The Spirit of the Outback came to a stop first and the drivers vacated the lead locomotive as the coal train approached. There was much criticism that the drivers had abandoned the passengers with no warning to brace for an impending impact. The Spirit of the Outback was hauled back to Dingo where passengers were permitted to disembark and were given complimentary tea and coffee. The Spirit of the Outback was delayed for two and a half hours due to the incident.
An investigation chaired by Queensland Transport concluded on 8 December 2000, which confirmed the crew of the Gladstone-bound coal train were at fault because they had passed a signal at danger and as a result were facing disciplinary action. A Queensland Rail spokesperson said the two drivers, who had excellent driving records prior to the incident, would undergo extensive re-training before being allowed to return to driving duties. The spokesperson also said the staff on board the Spirit of the Outback had acted properly by not discussing the severity of the incident with passengers at the time.