Australian trains

There are two types of trains in Australia - city trains and interstate or country trains.

You can get a train to pretty much anywhere in Australia but it's a bloody big country and trains are a lot slower than planes. It's cheap to travel by train interstate and train travel in the cities is fairly cheap too and it's a lot more comfortable that a bloody bus.

City Trains

All the capital cities have a fairly decent train service and, usually the bigger the city the better the service. Remember that in some cities they have trams, so they will make up for where the trains don't go. You can buy a normal single or return ticket to go somewhere but you will also find daily, weekly and even monthly passes.

Check out the transport website for each state:

NSW and ACT (www.131500.com.au)
VIC (www.connexmelbourne.com.au)
QLD (www.qr.com.au)
SA & NT (www.darwin.worldweb.com/Transportation/Trains)
TAS (couldn't find one)
WA (www.transperth.wa.gov.au)

Interstate trains

The interstate trains of Australia are run by Country Link and Rail Australia. A relatively cheap and effective way to travel from A to B but very little sight seeing can be done as you speed through the country side. Check out their web sites for details on how to book tickets

www.countrylink.info

www.railaustralia.com.au