''The Prospector'' is a rural passenger train service 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 ...

operated by

Transwa Transwa is Western Australia's regional public transport provider, linking 240 destinations, from Kalbarri in the north to Augusta in the south west to Esperance in the south east. The Transwa system provides transport between Perth and the ...

between

East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

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 ...

. On this service, two trains depart almost at the same time in opposite directions. One travels between East Perth and Kalgoorlie, the other between Kalgoorlie and East Perth with crew changeover occurring in Merredin. The original vehicles ordered in 1968 for trains providing this service were replaced in 2004 with vehicles capable of reducing journey times to 6 hours 45 minutes.

History

With the standard gauge line 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 ...

due to open in mid-1969, the

Western Australian Government Railways 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 ...

decided to replace '' The Kalgoorlie'' overnight sleeper service with a daylight service. The new service commenced on 29 November 1971, cutting the journey time from fourteen to eight hours. With an average speed of , it was the fastest service in Australia.

Stops

* Midland * Toodyay * Northam * Meckering * Cunderdin * Tammin * Kellerberrin * Doodlakine * Hines Hill * Merredin * Burracoppin * Carrabin * Bodallin * Moorine Rock *

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

* Koolyanobbing * Bonnie Vale *

Services

There is one train each way daily between

and

. On Mondays and Fridays, there are two services each way.

Onboard facilities

Each seat on board is in the same class. At every seat there is a touchscreen entertainment system with a small selection of movies, TV shows and music. They also offer a tray table, in-seat power ( Australasian/Chinese/Argentine type only), and a foot rest. Food is not complimentary on board and can be bought at the buffet. The buffet offers a variety of items such as ham and cheese croissants, pies, muffins, soft drinks, potato chips, lollies and alcohol. In 2022, Wi-Fi internet access was introduced to the service.

Rolling stock

In 1968, Comeng, Granville were awarded a contract to build eight WAGR WCA/WCE class railcars. Built to take advantage of the generous

loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and k ...

on the new line, they were the largest

carriages A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

ever built in Australia. They were the first trains in Australia to have at-seat catering. These held the record for the highest speed attained by an Australian train until bettered by a

New South Wales XPT The New South Wales XPT (short for eXpress Passenger Train) is a class of diesel locomotive, diesel-powered passenger trains built by Commonwealth Engineering, Comeng and ABB. Based on the British Rail-designed InterCity 125, High Speed Train, ...

in September 1981. In December 2000,

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 ...

awarded a contract to United Goninan,

Broadmeadow Broadmeadow is a locality in the Hunter region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is the geographic centre of the Newcastle city and suburban area. Its main commercial hub is located at the "Nineways".

for seven

Transwa WDA/WDB/WDC class The Transwa WDA/WDB/WDC and WEA/WEB classes are two classes of railcars built by United Goninan, Broadmeadow for Transwa in 2004–2005 to replace the WAGR WCA/WCE class railcars on the ''AvonLink, MerredinLink'' and ''Prospector'' services i ...

railcars to replace the original railcars. The first entered service on 28 June 2004. The new railcars are capable of , but track conditions restrict their top speed to . Nonetheless, they further reduced journey times to 6 hours 45 minutes.

Ridership

''The Prospector'' had 68,497 passengers in the year leading up to June 2022.

References

Bibliography

*''100th anniversary of rail link'' (History of the Eastern Goldfields railway, officially completed on 1 January 1897, to the present, including introduction of the ''Prospector'' train on 29 November 1971) ''

Kalgoorlie Miner ''The Kalgoorlie Miner'' (commonly known as ''The Miner'') is a daily newspaper circulating in the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder and the Goldfields–Esperance region, in Western Australia. It is published Monday to Saturday by Hocking & Co. ...

'' 1 January 1997, p. 2

External links

*
Perth Trains gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prospector (train), The Named passenger trains of Western Australia Prospector rail service Railway services introduced in 1971 1971 establishments in Australia