Mandurah railway line

Mandurah railway line

Legend
Continues to Joondalup line
0.0km Perth Underground
0.6km Esplanade
Mitchell Freeway
Riverside Drive
Swan River (Narrows Bridge)
Mill Point Road
Mill Point Road onramp
7.3km Canning Bridge
Canning Highway
Manning Road
Gentilli Way Bridge
Mount Henry Bridge
The Esplanade
Cranford Avenue
Leach Highway
11.7km Bull Creek
Parry Avenue
South Street
13.8km Murdoch
Farrington Road
Roe Highway
Thornlie Spur
Forrestfield Freight Line
Berrigan Drive
20.5km Cockburn Central
Armadale Road
Cockburn Siding
Russell Road
Rowley Road
Anketell Road
Kwinana Freeway Tunnel
Thomas Road
32.9km Kwinana
Sulphur Road
Challenger Avenue
Wellard Road
37.3km Wellard
Kwinana Freight Line
Mandurah Road
43.2km Rockingham
Elanora Drive
Safety Bay Road
47.6km Warnbro
Stake Hill Road
Paganoni Road
Mandjoogoordap Drive
Gordon Road
Fremantle Road
Mandurah Rail Depot
70.1km Mandurah
Transperth railway lines
Armadale/Thornlie
Fremantle
Joondalup
Mandurah
Midland
List of Transperth stations

The Mandurah railway line is a suburban railway line, running through the south western suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Partly located in the median strip of the Kwinana Freeway, the line connects Perth with Western Australia's second largest city, Mandurah. The line opened on 23 December 2007.[1]

In 2013, over 60,000 daily boardings were made.[2] and a Perth to Mandurah journey time of approximately 50 minutes, replaced the existing busway on the Kwinana Freeway, with about 14,000 boardings per day and a Perth to Mandurah journey time of approximately 68 minutes. In this comparison, the Kwinana Freeway busway was implemented at a significantly lower incremental (i.e. adding bus lanes to an existing freeway/road) cost than the railway.[3]

History

Legislation for the construction of the Mandurah line passed in December 1999.[4] The original proposed route branched from the Armadale line at Kenwick, and then ran alongside the freight lines until Jandakot where it would run in the median strip of the Kwinana Freeway.

However, following a change in State Government, a bill passed that saw the route altered to start at Perth station, traverse the Kwinana Freeway, and then continue along its initial route after Jandakot.[5] This second route was much more direct, and allowed through services with the Joondalup line. However, the second direct route was more costly than the original indirect route. This decision also led to the relocation of the Rockingham railway station from the city centre to the outer edge in order to offset the additional costs of the Perth section. The original route included tunnels to bring the railway into the Rockingham CBD. As a trade-off for relocating Rockingham station to the outer edge, the State Government promised a light rail link to the Rockingham CBD. This was later revised to a Central Area Transit style bus service partly within a dedicated busway.

Construction of the line started in February 2004. The contract for the city centre works, including the tunnels, was awarded to a joint venture of Leighton Contractors and Kumagai Gumi. The contractors used a tunnel boring machine manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.[6] The first tunnel was completed on 3 June 2006,[7] and the second on 27 October 2006.[8]

Between 2004 and 2006, the Leighton Kumagai Joint Venture was affected by a series of industrial disputes involving the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. This culminated in the prosecution of 107 workers for taking illegal industrial action, by the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Prosecution of "the Perth 107" became a national and international cause celebre, in part because it occurred as the Federal Government's industrial relations policy WorkChoices was taking place.

From 7 to 14 October 2007, a planned shutdown of the whole Fremantle line and partial closure of the Clarkson line between Perth and Leederville stations was undertaken to allow workers to connect the Mandurah line to the Clarkson line. On 15 October 2007, Perth Underground and Esplanade stations opened. On this day, the railway also carried its first passengers with the extension of Clarkson line services to Esplanade station.[9]

On 9 November 2007, the first train crossed Narrows Bridge to Rockingham station, testing the new railway line at around 07:30 with a driver and a group of engineers. After the line testing completed, driver training was undertaken.[1]

The line was officially opened on 23 December 2007, with the first train carrying 1500 passengers, including 1000 members of the public selected by ballot.[10] To celebrate, all Transperth bus, train and ferry services were free. On 24 December 2007, new routes and schedules took effect on many services, including the Mandurah line.[11]

The line replaced bus services that previously travelled along the freeway to the city, which now terminate at Mandurah line stations. The exception is Canning Highway services, which stop at Canning Bridge station before continuing to the city.[12]

Patronage

Below is the annual patronage of Mandurah railway line from 2010–2011 financial year. Figures are provided as total boardings, which includes all fare-paying boardings and free travel on stations within the free transit zones as well as transfers between stations. The figures for rail replacement and special events services are not included in the total.[13]

Mandurah railway line annual patronage
Year Patronage ±%
2010–11 18,519,864 —
2011–12 20,293,223 +9.58%
2012–13 21,150,408 +4.22%
2013–14 20,663,690 −2.30%

Railway stations

The section between the Perth underground and Esplanade stations is considered to be part of both the Joondalup and Mandurah lines. Special event services (such as AFL football games) terminate at West Leederville station on the Fremantle line. These services skip Esplanade and Perth on the Mandurah line as well as City West on the Fremantle line.

Mandurah Line
Name of station Code Zone Serving suburbs Pattern stops at this station Connections
All C K↓ K↑ W
Perth Underground
 MPH 1, FTZ Perth, Northbridge ●

●

●

●

●

Through to Joondalup line
Platform transfer to Armadale / Thornlie, Fremantle & Midland lines
Transwa Australind service to Bunbury
Bus transfers at Wellington Street bus station
Esplanade REE 1, FTZ Perth ●

●

●

●

●

Through to Joondalup Line
Bus transfers at Esplanade Busport
Canning Bridge RCE 1 Applecross, Como ●

●

●

●

Bus transfers
Bull Creek RBK 2 Bateman, Brentwood, Bull Creek ●

●

●

●

●

Bus transfers
Murdoch RMU 2 Bateman, Bull Creek, Murdoch, Leeming ●

●

●

●

●

Bus transfers, CircleRoute
TransWA coach services
Cockburn Central RCL 3 Jandakot, Atwell, Success, Cockburn Central ●

●

●

●

●

Bus transfers
Kwinana RKA 4 Bertram, Orelia, Parmelia, The Spectacles ●

●

●

Bus transfers
Wellard RWD 4 Leda, Wellard ●

●

●

Bus transfers
Rockingham RRM 5 Cooloongup, Hillman, Rockingham ●

●

●

●

Bus transfers
Warnbro RWO 5 Warnbro, Waikiki ●

●

Bus transfers
Mandurah RMH 7 Greenfields, Mandurah ●

●

Bus transfers, TransWA coach services

Legend:
Red denotes city stations
Orange denotes Mandurah line stations
Black denotes termini
Stopping patterns:
All     all stops to Mandurah
C       all stops to Esplanade, then all stations Bull Creek to Mandurah
K       (to Rockingham) departs from Perth; all stops to Cockburn Central, then Rockingham
K       (to Perth) departs from Rockingham; all stops to Perth
M       special event services between Mandurah/Cockburn Central and West Leederville; does not stop at Esplanade, Perth or City West stations
W      all stops to Cockburn Central; terminates at Cockburn Central

See also

References