Perth may get its trams back
By Grahame Armstrong
Electric trams could link Perth City and the inner suburbs in five years.
Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said yesterday she wanted to see light rail linking Subiaco, West Perth, the city, the WACA ground, Gloucester park and possibly Burswood.
In the longer term, the minister wants to see light rail running from the CBD to City Beach.
Light rail is basically a fast tram powered by overhead electricity. Tram services started in Perth in 1899 and stopped in 1958.
Ms MacTiernan said light rail would complement rather than replace the existing CAT bus service. The initial service would run along Hay St.
Max Hipkins, a former City of Perth planner, was a member of a project team that recommended light rail linking Perth's universities and major shopping centres, such as Garden City, to Perth.
"The advantages of light rail is you can build it for about a quarter of the cost of heavy rail and can carry as many people," Mr Hipkins said.
"It's a very cost-efficient way of transporting people.
"It also has the advantage that it is on the street -- it's safe and convenient."
Mr Hipkins said Perth had a transport system designed to bring large numbers of people into the city but was unable to distribute them once they arrived.
"You don't have to acquire land, you just put them in the streets," he said.
"You don't have to build stations, you just get them to stop at a post like a bus stop. All the carriages and running costs are a lot cheaper."
Below is the photo that was used for both locations. (In the newspaper the photo had the caption shown.)A light rail or tram line, like the one which once ran through Perth, would run along Hay Street from Subiaco to East Perth under an ambitious plan to ease city traffic.
Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan believes Perth's population is near the stage when it would make sense to install a light rail network to encourage people to use public transport.
The line could eventually be extended through the western suburbs and Perry Lakes.
Light rail could also feed into the Mandurah railway at Rockingham to replace a bus loop to the town's shopping centre. Another option was a line south of Fremantle along the Cockburn coast.
With light rail, trams and small trains run on tracks but do not need as much infrastructure as train networks.
Ms MacTiernan said city light rail was still "visionary" and she had not taken the idea to the Government. But she saw Hay Street as a good option because it formed a spine through West Perth.
Conceptual work was expected to begin by early next year.
The cost of Perth and Cockburn lines was unknown but Rockingham's was estimated at $48 million, including $12 million for a transit way for buses which would be the foundation for a light rail loop.
Urban planners embrace city light rail as a logical way to help Perth move from its car obsession.
CityVision chairman Ken Adam said the big advantage was it could run a lot closer to homes than standard trains. He would like to see it introduced or re-introduced to other near-city suburbs.
Opposition transport spokesman John Day said the idea had merit but needed to be investigated and would have to be viable.
Professor Fiona Haslam McKenzie, director of the new Housing and Urban Research Institute of WA, said it was a fantastic idea but Perth might not yet have the population to make it workable.
Could trams make a comeback to city streets?
Transcript of Segment from WA Stateline ABC-TV Program
Broadcast: 06/05/2005
Reporter: Dianne Bain
REBECCA CARMODY: Now to the city's transport system. If the planning minister has her way, pedestrians in Perth's Hay Street Mall will eventually be making way for a form of transport that's old enough to be new again - the tram. Dianne Bain reports.
VOICEOVER: Trams will be well remembered to this day in our fair city of Perth.
DIANNE BAIN: It's a pastime that many Western Australians have never experienced. Perth's trams were mothballed in 1959 paving the way for cars and buses. At the time, they were considered to be bulky, dangerous and a general nuisance for a society falling in love with the convenience of cars. WA's tram era is now over, but its memory survives through enthusiasts like Martin Grant.
MARTIN GRANT (VOLUNTEER TRAM DRIVER): Older people remember them from their youth and they know they get from A to B without being held up too much in traffic.
DIANNE BAIN: As a volunteer tram drive at Whiteman Park, Mr Grant's fondness for WA's locomotive past spans two decades.
MARTIN GRANT: We often have seniors groups come in and, after I've driven them around they say, "Well, I remember going to school on this," or "I went and did my shopping on this."
DIANNE BAIN: He's always believed in trams as efficient people movers, and now the state government agrees.
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN (MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE): Over the next 10 years there's going to be a great leap forward in the number of people coming back to live in the city and we've got to make sure that our public transport is adapting to these new and changed circumstances.
DIANNE BAIN: Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan says it's just an idea, but, by 2010, she'd like to see a light rail route extended the length of Hay Street going straight through the mall.
PROFESSOR PETER NEWMAN (PUBLIC TRANSPORT ADVOCATE): New light rail would be very similar to this; it's very comfortable, very convenient, very rapid and -
DIANNE BAIN: Public transport advocate Professor Peter Newman has developed transport systems around the world. In WA, he instigated the conversion of the State's old diesel train network into the more efficient electric system we use today, and he believes the city is now ready for another change to the modern tram: an even quieter and more environmentally friendly system of transport
PETER NEWMAN: There's plenty of room up and down St Georges Terrace where you could fit a light rail. They actually take up less space than a bus.
DIANNE BAIN: When there was a nationwide push to can the tram, Melbourne was the only state that stood its ground. Now it revels in the historical value and convenience of trams and Professor Newman believes Perth will be left behind if it doesn't follow suit.
PETER NEWMAN: This is the decade when the world oil production is peaking. We have to get a system together fairly soon if we're going to be able to compete as a world city.
DIANNE BAIN: With Perth's swelling population and a booming tourism market, the experts believe, now more than ever, the city is ready for a new mode of transport. But, are we being visionary enough. Should we be carving up our roads for rail or looking to more advanced modes of transport?
VOICEOVER: Welcome to the 21ST century to Skyweb Express, a simple yet innovative transportation system.
DIANNE BAIN: This futuristic pod looks like something out of a science fiction movie.
VOICEOVER: Skyweb Express - You don't wait for vehicles; they wait for you.
DIANNE BAIN: It's known as a personal rapid transit unit. Used like a taxi, it uses a monorail-type structure to commute, but it has the added ability to overtake other cars. This commuter has attracted international attention, but, for WA, the experts believe bringing back the tram is the only way forward.
FRED AFFLECK (STATE PEAK TRANSPORT RESEARCH CENTRE): I would much rather see us use tried and tested technology.
DIANNE BAIN: Fred Affleck heads up the state's Peak Transport Research Centre, PATREC. He thinks light rail is a visionary idea in itself.
FRED AFFLECK: Light rail is very well-proven technology from which we can get enormous benefits.
DIANNE BAIN: His estimates put the rail cost between $25 million and $30 million per kilometre of track, a price the government believes developers and ratepayers could subsidise by paying a levy. While the bean counters sift through the pros and cons of financing the prospect of a new rail system, Perth's tram community is contemplating a new era of rail.
MARTIN GRANT: We just don't want the cities to become gridlocked like a lot of the big cities around the world, and we really want to keep Perth as motor free as possible.
VOICEOVER: Trams will be well remembered to this day in our fair city of Perth.
DIANNE BAIN: It's a pastime that many Western Australians have never experienced. Perth's trams were mothballed in 1959 paving the way for cars and buses. At the time, they were considered to be bulky, dangerous and a general nuisance for a society falling in love with the convenience of cars. WA's tram era is now over, but its memory survives through enthusiasts like Martin Grant.
MARTIN GRANT (VOLUNTEER TRAM DRIVER): Older people remember them from their youth and they know they get from A to B without being held up too much in traffic.
DIANNE BAIN: As a volunteer tram drive at Whiteman Park, Mr Grant's fondness for WA's locomotive past spans two decades.
MARTIN GRANT: We often have seniors groups come in and, after I've driven them around they say, "Well, I remember going to school on this," or "I went and did my shopping on this."
DIANNE BAIN: He's always believed in trams as efficient people movers, and now the state government agrees.
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN (MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE): Over the next 10 years there's going to be a great leap forward in the number of people coming back to live in the city and we've got to make sure that our public transport is adapting to these new and changed circumstances.
DIANNE BAIN: Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan says it's just an idea, but, by 2010, she'd like to see a light rail route extended the length of Hay Street going straight through the mall.
PROFESSOR PETER NEWMAN (PUBLIC TRANSPORT ADVOCATE): New light rail would be very similar to this; it's very comfortable, very convenient, very rapid and -
DIANNE BAIN: Public transport advocate Professor Peter Newman has developed transport systems around the world. In WA, he instigated the conversion of the State's old diesel train network into the more efficient electric system we use today, and he believes the city is now ready for another change to the modern tram: an even quieter and more environmentally friendly system of transport.
PETER NEWMAN: There's plenty of room up and down St Georges Terrace where you could fit a light rail. They actually take up less space than a bus.
DIANNE BAIN: When there was a nationwide push to can the tram, Melbourne was the only state that stood its ground. Now it revels in the historical value and convenience of trams and Professor Newman believes Perth will be left behind if it doesn't follow suit.
PETER NEWMAN: This is the decade when the world oil production is peaking. We have to get a system together fairly soon if we're going to be able to compete as a world city.
DIANNE BAIN: With Perth's swelling population and a booming tourism market, the experts believe, now more than ever, the city is ready for a new mode of transport. But, are we being visionary enough. Should we be carving up our roads for rail or looking to more advanced modes of transport?
VOICEOVER: Welcome to the 21ST century to Skyweb Express, a simple yet innovative transportation system.
DIANNE BAIN: This futuristic pod looks like something out of a science fiction movie.
VOICEOVER: Skyweb Express - You don't wait for vehicles; they wait for you.
DIANNE BAIN: It's known as a personal rapid transit unit. Used like a taxi, it uses a monorail-type structure to commute, but it has the added ability to overtake other cars. This commuter has attracted international attention, but, for WA, the experts believe bringing back the tram is the only way forward.
FRED AFFLECK (STATE PEAK TRANSPORT RESEARCH CENTRE): I would much rather see us use tried and tested technology.
DIANNE BAIN: Fred Affleck heads up the state's Peak Transport Research Centre, PATREC. He thinks light rail is a visionary idea in itself.
FRED AFFLECK: Light rail is very well-proven technology from which we can get enormous benefits.
DIANNE BAIN: His estimates put the rail cost between $25 million and $30 million per kilometre of track, a price the government believes developers and ratepayers could subsidise by paying a levy. While the bean counters sift through the pros and cons of financing the prospect of a new rail system, Perth's tram community is contemplating a new era of rail.
MARTIN GRANT: We just don't want the cities to become gridlocked like a lot of the big cities around the world, and we really want to keep Perth as motor free as possible.
Read the original document at http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/wa/content/2005/s1363256.htm
Trams 'a must' for Subi Rapid expansion of the University of WA and QEII Medical Centre will make a light rail system -- or trams -- essential, says Subiaco's planning chief Geoff Glass.He said UWA would need one bus every 24 seconds, and QEII one every 20 seconds unless a better system was built.
If Rokeby Road became a "transit mall" with trams, four cars long, compromises would have to be made between trees and traffic.
UWA would double by 2020, expanding to Broadway and towards Hampden Road.
The QEII site would undergo a $1.5 billion expansion and increase from 600 to 1100 beds by 2011.
Thomas Street was not capable of handling this bus traffic.
It was a problem street because it was a border between Subiaco and the City of Perth. Neither council wanted the responsibility.
The target for light rail was 2011 to 2012.
Post Newspapers 6 May 2006