Arc Infrastructure (previously known as Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail) is a transport infrastructure owner and access provider in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

with a long-term lease on the network from the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also common ...

. It operates approximately 5,500 km of standard, narrow and dual gauge rail infrastructure in the southern half of the state.

History

In December 2000, the State Government privatised Westrail, with the

Australian Railroad Group Australian Railroad Group (ARG) was an Australian rail freight operator. It began operations in Western Australia on 17 December 2000 following its purchase of the Westrail freight business. It was purchased by QR National in June 2006. The mai ...

, a 50/50

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between United States rail operator

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom and formerly Australia. It operates ...

and Australian rural services company Wesfarmers, the successful bidder. Included in the sale was a 49-year lease on the below rail infrastructure network."Australian Railroad Group buys Westrail freight" ''Railway Digest'' December 2000 page 23 This part of the business was rebranded as WestNet Rail. On 1 June 2006, Australian Railroad Group was sold with the above rail rolling stock and terminal assets passing to

QR National Aurizon ( ) is a freight rail transport company in Australia, formerly named QR National. it was the world’s largest rail transporter of coal from mine to port. Formerly a Queensland Government-owned company, it was privatised and floated ...

, and the below rail infrastructure business to Babcock & Brown Infrastructure. Initially Babcock & Brown held a 51% shareholding, the remaining 49% being held by minority shareholders with Babcock & Brown having an option to increase its holding. In March 2008 Babcock & Brown increased its shareholding to 76%. It later took full ownership. In late 2009, Babcock & Brown Infrastructure was renamed Prime Infrastructure and again by December 2010 to

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a publicly traded limited partnership with corporate headquarters in Toronto, Canada, that engages in the acquisition and management of infrastructure assets on a global basis. Until a spin-off in Januar ...

following

Brookfield Asset Management Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is one of the world's largest alternative investment management companies, with over US$725 billion of assets under management in 2022. It ...

's purchase of the business. In August 2011, WestNet Rail was rebranded as Brookfield Rail. In 2017, Brookfield Rail relocated its headquarters from Welshpool to Perth Airport. In July 2017, the company was again rebranded as Arc Infrastructure.

Current operations

Arc Infrastructure has a lease until 2049 on of rail infrastructure throughout the southern half of Western Australia, from

Geraldton Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

in the north, to Leonora and

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area inclu ...

in the east, and south to Esperance, Albany and Bunbury.Non-urban rail routes covered by the WA rail access regime
Economic Regulation Authority It is responsible for maintaining the network and granting access to operators.

References

External links

* {{Rail network infrastructure companies, state=collapsed Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Railway infrastructure companies of Australia Rail transport in Western Australia Australian companies established in 2006 Railway companies established in 2006

History

Current operations

See also

References

External links