On 29 June 1885, the
Eastern Railway opened from
Chidlow's Well to
York. Another line opened south to Beverley on 5 August 1886 and ultimately
Albany via the
Great Southern Railway. The '
, an act by the Parliament of Western Australia granted assent on 27 October 1896, authorised the construction of the railway line from York to Greenhills. The ', assented to on 14 December 1906, authorised the construction of the Greenhills to Quairading section of the railway line. The '''', assented to on 16 February 1911, authorised construction of a railway line from Quairading to Nunajin, later renamed Bruce Rock. On 9 September 1897, construction commenced on a line to Greenhills, with the line opening on 1 September 1898. On 24 April 1908, it was extended to
Quairading, and to
Bruce Rock on 4 July 1913. The line was initially served by a thrice weekly
mixed train; this was later reduced to twice weekly. Once the line from Bruce Rock to
Merredin was opened in December 1913, a through service was introduced. In 1938, a thrice weekly through service from
Perth to Merredin was introduced with
ADE railcars. This reduced the travel time from 17 hours to eight. In 2013, the section of the railway line from York to Quairading was closed, with a lack of government investment in the line stated as the cause by the operator. In 2021, it was estimated that it would cost to upgrade the York to Quairading section of the railway line to reopen it. Arc Infrastructure deems the railway line to be part of its Grain Freight Rail Network, which, in 2017, accounted for 50 percent of its network but only 10 percent of its freight. The line from York to Quairading was classified as
Tier 3. ==References==