Byron Bay Solar Train

The Byron Bay train is the world's first fully solar-powered conventional passenger train, running a restored 3km stretch of the old Casino-Murwillumbah line that had sat disused for 13 years before a not-for-profit railroad company intervened. The 10 minute journey runs between Byron Bay's town centre and North Beach, cutting through littoral rainforest and past the tea-tree-stained waters of Belongil Creek in the Cape Byron Marine Park. Bikes, prams and surfboards travel free, and the service runs 364 days a year.

The train itself is a 1949-built railmotor, one of 10 originally constructed and now the only one of its kind still running anywhere. Its diesel engines swapped for electric motors, curved solar panels fitted to both carriage roofs, and regenerative braking topping up the batteries as it slows. Solar panels on the storage shed generate more power than the train needs, so the surplus is fed straight into the local grid.