the indian pacific in midland in august 2008 industry railway operator founded 1 november 1997 key people chris tallent ceo january 2012 parent allegro funds website www.greatsouthernrail.com.au the overland at southern cross station in february 2009 great southern rail gsr is an interstate passenger train operator in australia . formed on november 1 1997 it is a subsidiary of allegro funds . history edit as part of the privatisation of australian national on 1 november 1997 the ghan indian pacific and the overland were sold to great southern rail 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 . 4 5 while the former two services are profitable the operation of the overland is subsidised by the victorian and south australian governments . 6 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 . 7 it last ran in february 2012 . in november 2014 serco announced its intention to sell the business . 8 in march 2015 it was sold to allegro funds . 9 10 references edit g13 pty ltd great southern railway consortium completes acquisition of australian national railways passenger business serco 31 october 1997 goodbye an passenger hello great southern railway railway digest december 1997 page 7 about us great southern rail serco takes full control of gsr railway digest january 2000 page 7 letter from john mcmillan director of public transport victoria to margaret arblaster accc pdf . 2001 . retrieved 13 july 2012 . 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 . update on serco s strategy review serco 10 november 2014 allegro funds buys great southern rail from serco . sydney morning herald . 30 march 2015 . great southern rail to be bought by allegro in high end tourism push abc news 30 march 2015 v t e interstate rail in australia corridors sydney brisbane sydney adelaide perth sydney melbourne melbourne adelaide trans australian railway adelaide darwin passenger trains indian pacific the ghan the overland the southern spirit operators aurizon genesee & wyoming great southern rail nsw trainlink pacific national qube logistics sct logistics retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title great southern rail australia & oldid 738096383 categories interstate rail in australiapassenger railway companies of australiatrans australian railwayrailway companies established in 19971997 establishments in australiahidden categories use dmy dates from november 2012use australian english from january 2012all wikipedia articles written in australian english navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais italiano norsk bokm lpolskisvenska edit links this page was last modified on 6 september 2016 at 21 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view