Merry Christmas Everyone

Perth Growth - Rail Line Dreaming

Sometimes I like to take my restrained professional hat off and let myself dream. Today I am going to share with you my imagined future rail network for Perth. Perth's train network has obviously come a long way in the past 20 years, when it was reduced to a rump of diesel railcars serving the Midland and Armadale lines. The city too has expanded dramatically and with electrifications and extensions, this is roughly what the network will look like once the Mandurah line opens next year.




Now if the city continues to expand at something like the predicted rate, and proposed major developments take place then the city it going to be a lot larger in 15-20 years. Many sustainability people would be seriously freaked out if it all came to pass, but it gives me as a rail buff the opportunity to "design" system extensions. So this is what "my" network might look like in 2021.



You can see the suburban rail lines have been extended to major growth centres around the city. If I get the time I might explain some of these in more detail. I've also conceived two tram/light rail networks. One for the inner north-west and one for the Peel region. The diagram is not to scale, so the Peel network looks much smaller than it actually is.

OK. Back to proper analysis and planning now. :)

Tunelling under a Cemetery

I wonder what people's attitudes would be to building a railway tunnel under a cemetery?

A heretical transport planning idea

The Freeway south from Perth (the "Kwinana Freeway") currently ends somewhere south-east of Kwinana and north-east of Baldivis. This freeway is part of the highway that runs from Perth south to the boom areas of the WA South West (Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River etc.) , gets very congested at peak times and is going to be extended in the near future (the "Peel Deviation").

Hugging the freeway all the way down are a number of current and potential urban development areas, including Baldivis, Amarillo and Ravenswood. Obviously, this makes them prime contenders for 'car dependent' suburbs as it will be quick to drive and PT will have a hard time competing (the new Mandurah rail line is too far west of these suburbs).

Here is my 'heretical' idea. It is a given that the freeway will be extended, but how about it be built as a genuine long distance highway? In other words, it should be designed in such a way that it bypasses the urban areas without interchanges. The people of Baldivis and Amarillo would have access to much the same road network as at present (ie be no worse off) but public transport would be given a big fillip by continuing to be time competitive. It would have to be carefully designed so that interchanges could not be retrofitted at some time in the future.

This would require some work to sell, but nothing a good politician shouln't be able to handle!