Bids were lodged in February 1993 and West Coast Railway was announced as the successful tender on 30 April the same year.

[11] In June 2001, the two directors of the company Gibson and McDonald bought a 50% share in Tranz Scenic, the national passenger operator in New Zealand, withdrawing some long-distance trains that were not profitable.

[17] A blue, white, yellow and grey livery was adopted, and was progressively applied to all West Coast Railway rolling stock The first locomotive to be fully overhauled was S300, which began trials on 23 January 1995, entering regular service two weeks later.

[21] R711 entered service on regular trains on 21 November 1998 and was fitted with multiple unit control equipment so that it could be used in conjunction with diesel electric locomotives.

The final locomotive painted out of the WCR corporate livery was T369 in 2008 West Coast Railway encountered a series of operational difficulties during 2003/04 which adversely affected its business.

[21] The closure of the Warrnambool line between Melbourne and Geelong for five weeks in January and February 2004, to allow its rebuilding as part of the 160 km/h (100 mph) Regional Fast Rail project, meant that the company had to replace rail services with road coaches during the period of the works, with a resulting drop in passenger numbers.

In light of the failure of privatisation of V/Line Passenger, then Opposition transport spokesman Geoff Leigh predicting the proposed re-tendering of statewide regional rail operations in 2006 would result in West Coast Railway being "executed".

[22] Although West Coast Railway stated as late as May 2004 its intention to negotiate a new contract to operate Warrnambool services beyond the expiry of its existing contract in June 2004,[23] with the expected locomotive repair bill to be in excess of $1 million it decided not to seek a renewal.