Beachport Southwestern Railway

An EL1 at Optinia North station

## Map

The **Beachport Southwestern Railway** (BSW) is a railway network in the Capital Region. It is owned and operated by GBT. The railway consists of 196km of track and 37 stations. 4 lines numbered 50, 51, 52, and 53 are operated.

## Service

Line 50 runs from Beachport to Ogston, Line 51 from Beachport to Southpoint, Line 52 from Beachport to Optinia, and Line 53 runs from Beachport Central to Lighthouse Hill. The central section from Beachport Central to Myrna Pond runs every 3 minutes at peak times. Express trains run on Line 50 and 51 and stop at Alnán Avenue, Myrna Pond, Alsham Square, UB Central, Optinia North, and Marston before continuing as local trains.

## Rolling stock

   The BSW uses 2 types of train, both are electric multiple unit (EMU) trains. They are classified as the EL1 and EL2 respectively. The EL1 is imported from Sweden, and the EL2 was built by Stadler in Switzerland and in Lustar for use in both Sweden and Bayland.

## History

### The OLR

The first part of the BSW was opened in 1897 as the *Ogston-Lintham Railway* (OLR). The railway was built to a narrower gauge to decrease costs, and the 891mm gauge was chosen due to the large Swedish minority in Lintham, some of which had experience building 891mm gauge railways in Sweden. This railway expanded to Optinia in 1903, but kept its name.

The company realized the potential in expanding to Beachport, and set up a subsidiary in Beachport and began acquiring land in the center of the city for their new railway. In 1910, the railway opened a new urban line from a new station called Beachport South to Lighthouse Hill. This line was very profitable for the OLR, enough for the company to change its name to the *Beachport & Ogston Railway* (BOR).

### The BOR

After the first world war, the BOR made the decision to build a new mainline from Optinia to Beachport, partially using government subsidies. This line was completed in 1923, quickly becoming a key transport artery for the region. By 1926, the BOR was transporting 2000 tonnes of freight and 10 000 passengers per day. This growth prompted the BOR to build a line to the resort town Southpoint. The line to Southpoint was completed in 1932.

Due to Bayland's neutrality during WW2, the railway thrived, and acquired a large amount of new rolling stock, and decided to connect to the now well-established hub of Beachport Central, as BOR passengers were crowding Beachport's tram network transferring from one station to the other. This short extension was the most recent expansion of the BOR network, completed in 1944.

### Bayrail ownership

Due to increasing car ownership after the war, the railway became unprofitable, and was bought out by Bayrail in 1959 as an attempt to revive the service. The period of Bayrail ownership helped the railway become profitable again, but was short-lived, as the newly formed Greater Beachport Transit acquired the railway in 1963.

### GBT

After GBT's acquisition of the railway, the railway was renamed to the **Beachport Southwestern Railway** and the service pattern was reformed. This included a new station called Optinia North, which was built for trains to be able to pass through Optinia without reversing, as was needed before. The old line into central Optinia was repurposed as a branch. With this reformed service pattern, the trains ran on 4 lines originating in Beachport, and this service pattern has remained to this day. The line numbers, however, were introduced in 1999 and prior to this the lines had unique names.

This new service pattern also meant that part of the wye in Optinia became unused, and the unused section, along with a few locomotive sheds, was converted into a railway museum. The museum currently has 1 steam locomotive and 1 railbus, which sometimes tour the railway.