{"id":345682,"date":"2026-01-09T20:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=345682"},"modified":"2026-01-09T20:53:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T10:53:03","slug":"talison-lithium-will-not-reopen-historic-rail-line-from-worlds-biggest-lithium-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=345682","title":{"rendered":"Talison Lithium will not reopen historic rail line from world’s biggest lithium mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sino\u2013American company Talison Lithium has ruled out a rail link to the world’s biggest lithium mine in West Australia’s South West region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company and state government spent $6 million investigating the option to revive the defunct rail line <\/a>to help take trucks off the road and away from small towns along the South Western Highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rail line runs through towns such as Bridgetown, Donnybrook and Boyanup and has been closed for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We looked closely at whether rail could genuinely reduce impacts for local residents,” Talison Lithium chief executive Rob Telford said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company concluded it would be too expensive to use the rail line for a safe and efficient mixed road-and-rail supply chain at this time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The WA opposition is calling for more investment in the South Western Highway instead, to cater for the increased traffic on the road. (ABC South West WA: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Limited benefit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The feasibility study found the 78-kilometre rail link from the mine to the Bunbury Port, Kemerton and Kwinana was not economically viable due to the extra infrastructure required for the refurbishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even with rail, trucks would still be needed for the ‘first and final mile’ between the Greenbushes Lithium Operation and North Greenbushes’ new intermodal terminals (IMT), and from the Picton IMT to Bunbury Port,” Mr Telford said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Have they not heard of a rail siding to their location and the port area?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The company said it would take at least 3.5 years to complete the rail restoration, but did not reveal the estimated cost.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Rob Telford says reopening the rail line would not make much difference to the community. (Supplied: Talison Lithium)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Community members have been calling for the railway to be reopened<\/a> for years, amid fears extra trucks on the road would hamper tourism and put too much pressure on the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Telford said rail transport would not hugely improve the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“With 76 level crossings and 17 pedestrian crossings along the route, the overall exposure to the community would not be materially reduced.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Steve Thomas says the project has effectively been “taken off the table” for good. (ABC South West WA: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Opposition says move on<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WA shadow energy spokesperson and South West MLC Steve Thomas said the project had effectively been taken off the table for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nobody should be surprised,” he said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’ve managed to spend millions of dollars just kicking the can down the road when we all knew all the way through that this railway line was going to prove to be not feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s now absolutely essential the government takes the money they would have invested in the rail line and puts it into making the South Western Highway safer \u2026 they can add some more overtaking lanes, they can make sure that road is as good as it can be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WA government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talison Lithium has abandoned plans to reopen a historic rail line, saying the project is not economically feasible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":345683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[19203,19204,4553],"class_list":["post-345682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","tag-bunbury","tag-talison-lithium","tag-western-australia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345687,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345682\/revisions\/345687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}