Article: Perth rail system – an example of integrated transport planning

[ozbob]

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Perth rail system – an example of integrated transport planning

Perth rail system – an example of integrated transport planning
by Rail Express — last modified May 23, 2012 10:34 AM


The $4.1bn expansion to the Perth public transport system will provide an example of how to grow a rail system in the fastest and most efficient method possible, writes Francis Dwornik*.
 
Perth rail system – an example of integrated transport planning

In 2010, a long term plan for integrated growth to 2031 was unveiled and pressure is now being applied to implement the scheme to cope with current and future demands.

Over the next 21 years, the focus of the investment will be within 15km of the Perth central area, a sector that has seen public transport usage increase by 67% – three times the rate of population growth in the past few years alone.

Some 330,000 trips are made by public transport every weekday and with the mining boom set to see Western Australian jobs grow to 460,000 by 2016, Perth faces a higher percentage of growth than any other capital and a greater urgency for expansive infrastructure investment as a result.

The plan itself also requires revision with the forecast population forecast of 2.2 million people by 2031 now expected to occur a decade earlier. Some believe this will halve the time frame for the first stage of the expansion from 10 years to five years.

Perth's leading Automatic Train Protection (ATP) signalling system was installed with electrification around 20 years ago so it provides a robust framework for expansion and the most efficient train controls systems.

While other capitals face more than a century of accumulated "patchworked rail solutions", Perth's modern signalling system should provide a textbook case to demonstrate how the correct core infrastructure can assist in making cost effective and seamless expansion possible.

Some of the questions to be tackled by the Perth program will be how light and heavy rail can best integrate to provide the optimum outcomes for passengers and how to maintain an efficient and cost effective system.

By 2031, it is estimated the total annual cost to operate and maintain the public transport system in Perth will have risen to $1.2bn from $691.2m in 2009/10.

This will occur as Perth residents expected to double their use of public transport with trains and buses increasingly replacing cars in coming years.

To cater for this growth the proposed infrastructure expenditure to 2031 is:

•    Rail system expansion – $1.2bn
•    Light rail – $1bn
•    Bus rapid transit and bus priority infrastructure – $343m
•    Additional rail, bus and light rail depot and maintenance facilities – $315m
•    Transit interchanges, including park and ride – $135m.

This expansion to the system requires new rolling stock estimated at a total cost of $1.2 billion including:

•    156 additional railcars – $624m
•    900 additional buses – $482m
•    29 new light rail vehicles – $131m.

To deal with this investment, Perth also has to solve the perennial problem of access to land for public transport.

This is where light rail becomes an alternative with its smaller requirements for land and more flexible routes and is something that is on the agenda for all capital cities baulking at the high cost of heavy rail.

Light rail is seen as the solution for the central northern suburbs to minimise cost and disruption to existing commercial and residential areas.

As with all major infrastructure projects, Perth will require a "cocktail" of funding with state and federal cash expected to be supplemented from the private sector based on value transfer from increased property value. It will be interesting to see how the 2010 proposal progresses through the process.

Greenfields development will require heavy railway to Yanchep but the cost will require Federal Government funds and major land owners to ensure greenfields urban development will have the housing density and structure to provide the passenger numbers required.

The relatively small Perth rail system – around 200km – provides a "microcosm" of the issues facing other capital cities but without the problems of inherited signalling infrastructure.

* Francis Dwornik is General Manager of Pacific Services Group Rail division and a regular contributor to Rail Express.

[Golliwog]

Are those 156 new railcars going to be manufactured at Maryborough?

[SurfRail]

Are those 156 new railcars going to be manufactured at Maryborough?

We can only hope - at least we can experience a teensy bit of the Perth system when it gets railed down to Acacia Ridge...

Does the 156 include the 45 (15x3) new B-sets they have ordered?

[petey3801]

Are those 156 new railcars going to be manufactured at Maryborough?

We can only hope - at least we can experience a teensy bit of the Perth system when it gets railed down to Acacia Ridge...

Does the 156 include the 45 (15x3) new B-sets they have ordered?

Even then, they won't be railed from Maryborough to Perth anymore, they will be trucked from the information I have recieved from those in the know.