Arc Infrastructure, formerly Brookfield Rail and WestNet Rail, is a rail infrastructure manager and access provider in

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 ...

with a long-term lease on the network from the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

. 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 A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

privatised

Westrail Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the state owned operator of railways in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra respon ...

, 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

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, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia. ...

and

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

, the successful bidder. Included in the sale was a 49-year lease on the below rail infrastructure network. 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, and the below rail infrastructure business to

Babcock & Brown Babcock & Brown LP (B&B) was a global investment and advisory firm, established in 1977, based in Sydney, Australia, that went into liquidation in 2009. Babcock & Brown Securities LLC is an active investment banking firm focused on equipment an ...

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 Janua ...

following

Brookfield Asset Management Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is a Canadian-American alternative asset manager. The company was founded in December 2022 as a spin-off of the asset management operations of Brookfield Corporation. At its inception, the company was headquarter ...

's purchase of the business. In August 2011, WestNet Rail was rebranded as Brookfield Rail. In 2017, Brookfield Rail relocated its headquarters from

Welshpool Welshpool ( ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales, historically in the Historic counties of Wales, county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn. The c ...

Perth Airport Perth Airport is an international airport, international, domestic airport, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, Western Australia. It is the List of the busiest airports in Australia, fourth busiest airport in Australia meas ...

. In July 2017, the company was again rebranded as Arc Infrastructure. In the lead-up to the 2025 state election, the Cook state government announced it would explore options to return the network to public ownership be terminating ARC Infrastructure's lease. During the

2025 Australian federal election The 2025 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 3 May 2025, to elect members of the 48th Parliament of Australia. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives were up for election, along with 40 ...

campaign, the

Albanese government The Albanese government is the current federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party. The Albanese government was sworn in on 23 May 2022 by the Governor-General of Australia, David Hurl ...

announced funding for a feasibility study to renationalise the network.

Operations

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

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...

in the north, to Leonora and

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just 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 referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...

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 Railway companies established in 2006 2006 establishments in Australia