Level Crossing Safety is Important
But at what cost to our Tourist & Heritage railways?

The future of Western Australia’s tourist and heritage railways is under significant threat if the Rail Safety National Law Application Amendment (Rolling Stock Lighting) Bill 2026 (the Bill) is passed.

ATHRA – the Association of Tourist & Heritage Rail Australia calls on the WA parliament to seriously consider the impact of the Bill on the operation of Western Australian Tourist & Heritage railways.

ATHRA and its member railways support and work with the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) to ensure Australia’s railway heritage operates to the highest safety standards and can continue to be enjoyed by thousands of locals and tourists each year.

Tourist & Heritage Railway operations across Australia comprise 70% of all rail organisations regulated by ONRSR. These vary from static museums that periodically shunt to reposition their exhibits, up to tour trains carrying the paying public on metropolitan, regional and interstate main line networks. All these groups comply with the Rail Safety National Law, Regulations and Industry Standards so far as is reasonably practicable (SFAIRP).

 In Western Australia, ATHRA members include many much-loved attractions:

• Bennett Brook Railway
• Perth Electric Tramway Society of WA at Whiteman Park, Caversham WA;
• Hotham Valley Railway, Dwellingup, WA;
• Rail Heritage WA, at Bassendean and its satellite sites of Minnivale and Boyanup, WA;
• Busselton Jetty Railway, Busselton WA;
• Rottnest Island Tramway, Rottnest Island WA;
• Pemberton Tramway, Pemberton WA and
• Collie Rail Heritage Group, Collie WA.

All of these railways contribute significantly to the tourism and visitor economy of their respective regions and Western Australia and are operated by passionate and enthusiastic volunteers who give freely of their time to maintain and operate their equipment and infrastructure.

The Bill, if passed in its current form, will see most if not all of these operations cease and catastrophically affect Western Australia’s regional tourism industry and the preservation of its cultural and industrial heritage.

The Bill mandates that every locomotive, tramcar, carriage, wagon and railcar in West Australia be fitted with high intensity electric side lighting and directional rotating orange beacons in order to move within 1000 m of a level crossing. This is excessive and is not reflective of the significantly lower risk profile of slow-moving heritage train and trams operating occasionally on isolated lines. Integrating high intensity electric lighting onto equipment up to 130 years old is technically very challenging and will impose unreasonable costs on heritage railways for installation and ongoing maintenance.

The penalties for non-compliance including:

• a $250,000 fine for organisations – would mean the end of most Tourist & Heritage Railways and force them to consider closing down and reverting to static museum displays only; and
• a $50,000 personal fine for an individual, most of whom are volunteers, retirees and/or pensioners will force them to withdraw their services.

This Bill does nothing to improve level crossing safety on Tourist and Heritage Railways in Western Australia.

ATHRA and its members believe level crossing safety is very important and support

• a national and consistent approach to train visibility lighting and level crossing safety as outlined in the recently released ONRSR Code of Practice;
• a comprehensive road user education program around the importance of level crossing safety and enforcement of the existing road rules; and
• the work of ONRSR and the TrackSAFE Foundation in these areas.

ATHRA urges the WA parliament to reject the Rail Safety National Law Application Amendment (Rolling Stock Lighting) Bill 2026 in its current form.

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