West Coast Wilderness Railway link on track to reopen on January 6

IT'S all aboard the West Coast Wilderness Railway for the coming tourist season, with engines on the historic link raising steam again on January 6.

IT'S all aboard the West Coast Wilderness Railway for the coming summer tourist season, with engines on the historic Queenstown-Strahan link raising steam again on January 6 for the first time since April this year.

Launching a spectacular new TV advertising campaign yesterday, Infrastructure Minister David O'Byrne said while talks were continuing to find a full-time operator for the west coast attraction, the Government would oversee the resurrection of the key piece of regional infrastructure.

"Negotiations to find a new operator are ongoing but this takes time and we wanted to make sure we could get it up and running this summer," Mr O'Byrne said.

"We are confident that once it is up and going and people can see the numbers that are going through, there that we will be in a position to finalise negations soon."

Mr O'Byrne said owing to recent weather-induced landslides in the mountainous area, extra trackwork was still needed to link Dubbil Barril and Strahan but a half-day tour service would depart Queenstown daily at 9am, stopping at the historic stations of Lynchford, Rinadeena and Dubbil Barril.

For West Coast Mayor Robyn Gerrity, the return of the Abt railway albeit in its temporarily truncated form represents the shot in the arm her region desperately needs, after the service was taken offline earlier this year when the Federal Group walked away from the venture.

But she warned the Government would not find a private operator until the entire 35km track was up and running, with return trips between Strahan and Queenstown.

"This is fabulous, especially getting into the very start of the summer holiday tourist season," Cr Gerrity said.

"We need another activity here for people to do and the fact that the railway hasn't been running since April has had a noticeable effect on tourist numbers and their overnight stays on the west coast. We're lucky the shutdown was over winter but even in winter, it gave people something else to do."

Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief Luke Martin lauded the TV ad launch as an exciting day for the West Coast and the Tasmanian tourism industry in general.

He said the Abt was an iconic Tasmanian wilderness experience and the new campaign represented the start of its successful rebirth.

Book through the railway's website.