CBH confirms it has no plans to use the West Toodyay to Miling Rail Line this harvest after lengthy closure

The West Toodyay to Miling Rail Line has been excluded from CBH Group’s busy outloading program with plans in place to truck thousands of tonnes of grain from its six bins dotted along the 145km line. A CBH spokeswoman this week confirmed the line would not be used to cart a single grain of WA’s record harvest as it had made “alternative” plans to receive, store and outload grain when it was informed the line would not be open for harvest 2021-22. The embattled line — plagued by derailments and closures in recent years — was closed by rail line lessee Arc Infrastructure on May 19 last year, after a bridge crossing the Avon River at West Toodyay was damaged by significant floods two months prior. Arc reopened the line at the tail end of WA’s record harvest in late January after 10 weeks of repairs which were stalled by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage’s lengthy approvals process. The CBH spokeswoman this week said the co-operative had diverted its trains to other parts of the network and would instead truck grain from the truck grain from the sites alongside the line to others with rail access or direct to Kwinana Port. “Our focus is now on out turning this record crop and utilising our road and rail assets to maximise supply chain efficiency,” she said. “CBH planned for the Miling line to not be in use and planned an alternative road outloading program, which is working well getting tonnes to port. “The line is an important part of our network and will be factored into the future transport task, however currently our trains are fully utilised transporting grain on other rail lines.” The line is used exclusively to cart grain from CBH’s upcountry bins to West Toodyay, where it joins with the Eastern Goldfields Railway to take grain to Kwinana Port, but has been plagued by derailments, damage and closures in recent years. Some farmers Countryman spoke to this week raised concerns about Arc Infrastructure-imposed load, speed and wagon restrictions along the line which they said could impact its efficiency, making road transport a more economical option for CBH. Arc Infrastructure declined to reveal or clarify what temporary speed restrictions existed along the line, with a spokeswoman saying the company could not provide information on customer operations. She said the line was “reopened on schedule in January” and remained open to “any customer who wishes to use the line”. “There are no additional restrictions in place on the Miling line than before bridge repairs were undertaken,” the spokeswoman said. Shire of Moora president Tracy Lefroy said she believed there needed to be a “strategic conversation” between Arc Infrastructure and CBH about what the grain handler’s requirements were and whether Arc would be able to “meet those requirements”. “Then both groups can ensure that grain is being transported in the most economic fashion,” she said. “(Trucking grain) this year may be a slightly more expensive option, but one of the issues with a big harvest is getting grain from upcountry to port... CBH’s priority is securing that pathway.” Ms Lefroy said she believed CBH had given “strong indication” it wanted to prioritise the adjacent Moora to Millendon Rail Line after last year announcing a $29 million project to build a rapid rail outloading and rail siding extension at the Moora receival site. CBH has touted the project for its potential to bolster efficiency by nearly 60 per cent, slashing the time taken to shunt and load a train stopping at Moora from 11 hours to four hours. “The bottleneck at Moora has always been the time taken to load trains,” Ms Lefroy said. “And after increasing that capacity, it makes sense for CBH to direct grain to that site.” CBH chief operations officer Mick Daw last month welcomed the reopening of the line but declined to reveal how much it had cost CBH to truck grain, or whether CBH was pursuing financial reimbursement from Arc Infrastructure. The line had operated with little incident for 16 months until it was closed in May, sparking concern from farmers whose freight rates paid to CBH could potentially increase if the grain handler was forced to truck all of their grain to port. Arc’s remediation plans included replacing “failed elements” of the bridge and constructing a temporary causeway on the riverbed to bring plant equipment to site, but the works fell under the Aboriginal Heritage Act’s controversial Section 18 process. Under the section — the same approvals process that allowed Rio Tinto to destroy 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in 2020 — “impact to a (cultural) site is unavoidable” and it must go through rigorous checks and balances. One of the worst incidents along the West Toodyay to Miling line was when a CBH locomotive hauling 30 wagons overturned in 2019.