Journey Beyond

Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions (JBRE), doing business as Journey Beyond, is an Australian interstate luxury train operator. Founded on 1 November 1997 as Great Southern Rail (GSR), it is currently owned by Quadrant Private Equity which acquired the business in 2016.

Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions
IndustryRailway operator
Founded1 November 1997
Headquarters
Marleston 
,
Australia 
Key people
Chris Tallent, CEO (January 2012 - )
ParentJourney Beyond Group (Quadrant Private Equity)
Websitejourneybeyondrail.com.au

History

Prior to the 1990s, Australian National was the owner and operator of Australia's interstate railways, freight and passenger trains. From 1996 to 1998, Australian National was broken up and on 1 November 1997 its interstate passenger trains — The Ghan, Indian Pacific and The Overland — were sold to Great Southern Rail (GSR), a consortium of GB Railways, Legal & General, Macquarie Bank, RailAmerica, G13 Pty Ltd[1] and Serco.[2] Included were 186 items of rolling stock, primarily stainless steel carriages and the Adelaide and Alice Springs stations.[3] In October 1999, Serco bought all the shares from its consortium partners, becoming the sole owner of Great Southern Rail.[4][5]

While the former two services are profitable, the operation of The Overland continues to be subsidised by the Victorian government,[6] after the South Australian government's announcement of its intention to cease its portion of the subsidy from the end of 2018.[7]

On 30 June 2020, the Victorian State Government announced that it would again subsidise 'The Overland' for three years. However on the same day, South Australian premier Steven Marshall announced that SA would not be reopening its borders to Victorian (and NSW) residents from 20 July 2020 as previously suggested. 'The Overland' is expected to resume operating two days a week each way once the Vic-SA border reopens.

GSR reduced costs by renegotiating staff pay and conditions, and increased revenues by extending the Ghan, which originally ran from Adelaide to Alice Springs, so that it ran once each week from Sydney and once each week from Melbourne. With completion of the railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Ghan now runs from Adelaide to Darwin. While GSR owns the passenger car fleet, Pacific National provides motive power for the services.

The Southern Spirit was a luxury cruising train service, launched by Great Southern Rail on 17 June 2008, with the inaugural service running on 25 November 2008.[8] It last ran in February 2012.

In November 2014, Serco announced its intention to sell the business.[9] In March 2015, it was sold to Allegro Funds[10][11] and a year later sold to Quadrant Private Equity.[12]

In 2019, Great Southern Rail was rebranded as Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions.

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References
  1. G13 Pty Ltd
  2. Great Southern Railway Consortium completes acquisition of Australian National Railways Passenger Business Archived 10 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine Serco 31 October 1997
  3. "Goodbye AN Passenger, Hello Great Southern Railway" Railway Digest December 1997 page 7
  4. About Us Archived 9 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine Great Southern Rail
  5. "Serco Takes Full Control of GSR" Railway Digest January 2000 page 7
  6. Notes on Adelaide InDaily, 14 December 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  7. Overland Adelaide-Melbourne train service set to be cancelled after SA funding axed, ABC News, 29 November 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  8. "Great Southern Rail launches new luxury rail cruise The Southern Spirit". 17 June 2008. Archived from the original on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  9. Update on Serco's Strategy Review Archived 17 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine Serco 10 November 2014
  10. "Allegro Funds buys Great Southern Rail from Serco". Sydney Morning Herald. 30 March 2015.
  11. Great Southern Rail to be bought by Allegro in high-end tourism push ABC News 30 March 2015
  12. "Control of the Indian Pacific, Ghan changes one more time in private equity reshuffle". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 15 September 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
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