Work starting on Prospector track upgrade

26/10/2007

Road coaches are taking over some Prospector services for several months.

Beginning next week and, except for three weeks over Christmas, through until February 29 next year:

• there will be no train from either Kalgoorlie or Perth on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  These services will be provided by a replacement coach.
• Passengers on the Monday and Friday afternoon departures from Kalgoorlie will travel by coach to Bonnievale where they will board the Prospector for the rest of the journey to Perth.
• Passengers on Monday and Friday morning departures from Perth will travel by train to Bonnievale, where they will transfer to a coach for the final part of the trip to Kalgoorlie.

All other Prospector services will run as normal.

A reduced fare will apply on Wednesday and Thursday when the train service is fully replaced by a coach, and there are some booking restrictions – for example, wheelchair access is not available on the Wednesday-Thursday coach services.

The replacement coach services will depart from and arrive at Kalgoorlie Station.  However, other coach stopping places and times may vary due to operational conditions.  Passengers should check with Transwa on 1300 6622 05.

Full details of the disruptions, to allow work to take place on a major upgrade of the main Eastern Goldfields rail line, were announced in August.

The work is due to start at the end of October and run through to the following August with a break from December 21 to January 13 next year, during which time Prospector services will revert to the normal timetable.

Train replacement arrangements for the second stage of the work, from March 3 until August next year, will be announced closer to the time.

The track work is being carried out by Westnet Rail.  It includes replacing the last section of wooden sleepers with concrete and increasing the size of the (single-track) line’s “crossing loops” to better enable them to take big freight trains.

For more information, please refer to the Transwa website: www.transwa.wa.gov.au .