Genesee & Wyoming Industries on Monday said it plans to sell its jointly owned Western Australia operations to an Australian group for $956 million.

The Greenwich-based company and its joint venture partner Wesfarmers Ltd. have agreed to sell it along with certain other assets of the Australian Railroad Group to Queensland Rail and Babcock & Brown Ltd.

The train operations will be owned by Queensland Rail. The track operations will be owned by Babcock & Brown.

The sale is subject to government approvals, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2006.

Genesee & Wyoming expects to record an after-tax gain of $107 million for the sale, excluding some transaction expenses.

Genesee & Wyoming has also agreed to buy Wesfarmers' 50 percent-ownership of certain South Australian operations of Australian Railroad Group for $15 million.