Population growth and increased freight are the key drivers of the government’s $4bn public transport plan for light rail, new bus services and an extension of the northern train line.
THE state government has revealed the blueprint for its $4 billion public transport plan to develop light rail and bus rapid transit services, and extend the northern rail line.
The blueprint was developed in close consultation with the Department of Planning, which released its urban planning strategy Directions 2031 in August last year.
Directions 2031 was aimed at increasing the functionality of activity centres across Perth, increasing residential densities and creating employment opportunities.
Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the Public Transport in Perth 2031 plan outlined a strategy to increase capacity and efficiency of the current network as well as provide numerous benefits to the city as a whole.
“Good cities need good public transport and good public transport has a whole range of social and economic benefits, such as lower congestion costs, lower costs in terms of travel times and lower parking costs,” Mr Buswell said.
He said the government would use $11 million allocated in the 2011-12 state budget to progress planning for the three priority projects.
However, funding arrangements for plan have yet to be finalised.
Mr Buswell said population growth and increased freight were the two key drivers of the plan, with Perth’s population expected to grow by 500,000 over the next 20 years, reaching 2.2 million by 2031.
“Over the past 10 years, public transport use in Perth has increased by 67 per cent and by 2031 Perth residents will more than double their use of public transport, which will see it account for nearly 70 per cent of all trips to the CBD,” Mr Buswell said.
The plan sets out the projects that are to be completed in two stages – the first by 2020 and the second by 2031.
The first stage will focus on three priority projects – the introduction of light rail from Mirrabooka to the CBD, the extension of the heavy rail line north to Yanchep, and a bus rapid transit service between Ellenbrook and Bassendean.
Projects earmarked for stage two include a light rail connection from Stirling to the University of Western Australia, a railway connection to Perth Airport, and bus rapid transit services from Fremantle to Rockingham.
Mr Buswell said the stage one implementation of a light rail system from Perth to Mirrabooka would be necessary to facilitate the growing demand for public transport in that area.
“There are a lot of people from that area that currently come into the city directly on bus and there are a lot of people who come into that area who transit across to the heavy rail line,” he said.
“So it will take pressure off the heavy rail line and the pressure off congestion in inner-city areas, so we frankly think it gives the best bang for buck.”
Business group the Committee For Perth has been a strong advocate of the light rail concept, but also said further investigations were needed on a light rail concept known as the ‘knowledge arc’, linking Curtin University, the QEII Medical Centre and UWA.
“We are very much the proponents of the light rail option, but the first project is the Perth to Mirrabooka line and we were much more in favour of the Knowledge Arc ... to give students and workers in those facilities greater options,” Committee For Perth CEO Marion Fulker said.
Ms Fulker had previously said that, based on short-term benefits, there had been a tendency to favour investment in bus over rail, despite rail being faster, more reliable and economic.
Labor leader Eric Ripper said serious consideration should be given to a new circle rail line as part of the plan to allow commuters to be diverted around the city centre.
“A circle rail line, built in stages over the next 30 to 50 years, would connect growing employment areas across the metropolitan area,” Mr Ripper said.
Labor’s transport spokesman, Ken Travers, attacked the state government’s plan, saying there should be a focus on a heavy rail network.
“We needed a vision for the future that built a heavy rail network, with a light rail route along major activity corridors and buses feeding into this system,” Mr Travers said.
• See Mark Pownall (page 31), Peter Kennedy (page 32).
