Australian National Railways Commission

Australian transport agency 1975–1988

The Australian National Railways Commission was an agency of the Government of Australia that was a railway operator between 1975 and 1998. It traded as Australian National Railways (ANR) in its early years, before being rebranded as Australian National. AN was widely used from 1980, the logotype being registered as a trade mark.

Australian National operated passenger services within South Australia, mainly using Bluebird railcars. In December 1986, Australian National reintroduced services to Whyalla and Broken Hill using CB railcars. The remaining services were withdrawn in 1990. It also operated The Ghan. It also operated the Indian Pacific in partnership with the Public Transport Commission and Westrail and The Overland in partnership with the Victorian Railways. It took over the running of these services in full in February 1993 and 1994 respectively. Australian National also operated the Trans Australian until June 1991 and The Alice between November 1983 and mid 1988.

Australian National entered a joint venture with National Rail to operate Roadrailers under the Trailerail brand. In November 1994, the first service commenced operating between Adelaide and Perth followed in November 1995 by a service from Adelaide to Melbourne. In 1996, Australian National withdrew from the joint venture with National Rail taking over its share.

Following the formation of National Rail, Australian National's interstate freight operations and rolling stock were transferred in 1994. In November 1996, the Federal Government announced a major rail reform package that included the sale of Australian National. On 1 November 1997, The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland passenger services were sold to Great Southern Rail, the South Australian intrastate services to Genesee & Wyoming Australia and AN Tasrail to the Australian Transport Network. In July 1998, the railway infrastructure operated by Australian National's Track Access division, was transferred to the federal government owned Australian Rail Track Corporation. In October 2000, following the resolution of outstanding issues relating to property and employee compensation, Australian National was wound up.