The York–Bruce Rock railway line is a closed railway line in the Wheatbelt region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

running from

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

to Bruce Rock.

History

On 29 June 1885, the Eastern Railway opened from Chidlow's Well to

. Another line opened south to Beverley on 5 August 1886 and ultimately Albany via the Great Southern Railway. The ''York-Greenhills Railway Act 1896'', an act by the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parl ...

assented to on 27 October 1896, authorised the construction of the railway line from York to Greenhills. The ''Greenhills-Quairading Railway Act 1906'', assented to on 14 December 1906, authorised the construction of the Greenhills to Quairading section of the railway line. The ''Quairading-Nunajin Railway Act 1911'', assented to on 16 February 1911, authorised construction of a railway line from Quairading to Nunajin, later renamed Bruce Rock. On 9 September 1897, construction commenced on a line to Greenhills, with the line opening on 1 September 1898. On 24 April 1908, it was extended to Quairading, and to Bruce Rock on 4 July 1913. In Bruce Rock, it intersected the

Merredin to Narrogin railway line The Merredin to Narrogin railway line was a railway line in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, between Merredin and Narrogin. The line was also known as the West Merredin to Narrogin via Corrigin railway. History The ''Narrogin-Wicke ...

. The line was initially served by a thrice weekly

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. In some countries, the term refers to a freight train carrying various different types of freight rather a single commodity. Although common in the ...

; this was later reduced to twice weekly. Once the line from Bruce Rock to Merredin was opened in December 1913, a through service was introduced. In 1938, a thrice weekly through service from

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

to Merredin was introduced with ADE railcars. This reduced the travel time from 17 hours to eight. In August 1949, a road bus service was introduced. By January 1951, the railcar service had been reduced to once weekly and was withdrawn entirely in March 1952. Diesel locomotives were introduced to the line in 1955, working in parallel with steam locomotives until 1970. In 1985, the line was closed between Yoting and Shackleton, the line now operating as two separate lines from York to Yoting and Bruce Rock to Shackleton. In October 1990, the haulage of superphosphate ceased, with the line exclusively used by grain trains. It was cut back to Quairading in the 1990s and closed entirely in October 2013. In 2013, the section of the railway line from York to Quairading was closed, with a lack of government investment in the line stated as the cause by the operator. In 2021, it was estimated that it would cost A$110.9 million to upgrade the York to Quairading section of the railway line to reopen it. Arc Infrastructure deems the railway line to be part of its Grain Freight Rail Network, which, in 2017, accounted for 50 percent of its network but only 10 percent of its freight. The line from York to Quairading was classified as Tier 3.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:York-Bruce Rock railway line Railway lines opened in 1894 Wheatbelt railway lines of Western Australia Railway lines closed in 2013 Former Western Australian Government Railways railway lines Railways constructed by the Public Works Department of Western Australia 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Australia