In February 1992 Westrail commissioned a study to Halpern Glick Maunsell at a cost of $50,000. for the routing of a VFT service, four possible routes were identified. The study was to be completed by July 1992 and given to the Minister for Transport Pam Beggs.  Has anyone seen this study or know of its existence

That's a long time ago. How much has changed since then? Or more accurately what, if anything is still the same?

- electrification
- Mandurah line
- Kwinana freeway & Forrest Highway
- population

This could be well worth a revisit, using the Mandurah line as the main access route from Perth. Apart from a few problems getting out of Mandurah, an alignment to somewhere around Yunderup then down the Forrest Highway would be quite feasible. Single line construction in a dual track corridor - no level crossings and diesel operated at 160-200km/h. This would be fast enough to be competitive with road, but not too heavy on new technology or fuel costs. Alignment selection could still allow eventual higher speeds with electric trains

Would probably need to be many years off, given the state's current financial position, but there would certainly be no harm reserving the corridor before it gets built on.

For access to Perth, it could start off with a simple connection (change trains) at Mandurah (or possibly extend the electric service to a park & ride station somewhere out near the freeway) but no doubt there would be a lot of customer pressure for direct services to Perth.

Operating diesel trains through the (relatively short) tunnels in the CBD could be achieved by relatively small energy storage on the trains so diesel engines could be shut off. Turnback could use the siding at Leederville.

There was a follow-up report exploring options in about 2002 for AMcT also by HGM. This looked at a range of options for Perth-Bunbury including very high speed and speeding up the Australind to 90 minutes then 60 minutes. As it is 182 km, it was a bit of an ask and when they wanted to retain station stops it gave rise to cynicism. A Harrier jump jet would not meet that. There was also the issue that Bunbury trains lost priority from Armadale and anyone who has followed a stopping train on the Australind knows what that means. One issue was the checking of all tickets before boarding and that could take 4 minutes at Brunswick and Pinjarra. Another was the freight traffic approaching capacity on the single line, with some key sections identified.
This report also looked at returning quality passenger services to Pemberton and Margaret River, pointing out that Busselton was a possible viable destination especially as all the corridor was available and much of the track intact and operable. Whilst the highway obliterated the railway near Busselton, a corridor was retained for rail parallel to the road and was zoned for transport.
When the population of Bunbury increases 10 fold, the report may be dusted off and revisited.
For info, HGM became Maunsell and then AECOM.
The option of using the Mandurah line and following the median of the highway from about Lakelands or going across to Pinjarra was included in the report.

There was a follow-up report exploring options in about 2002 for AMcT also by HGM. This looked at a range of options for Perth-Bunbury including very high speed and speeding up the Australind to 90 minutes then 60 minutes. As it is 182 km, it was a bit of an ask and when they wanted to retain station stops it gave rise to cynicism. A Harrier jump jet would not meet that. There was also the issue that Bunbury trains lost priority from Armadale and anyone who has followed a stopping train on the Australind knows what that means. One issue was the checking of all tickets before boarding and that could take 4 minutes at Brunswick and Pinjarra. Another was the freight traffic approaching capacity on the single line, with some key sections identified.
This report also looked at returning quality passenger services to Pemberton and Margaret River, pointing out that Busselton was a possible viable destination especially as all the corridor was available and much of the track intact and operable. Whilst the highway obliterated the railway near Busselton, a corridor was retained for rail parallel to the road and was zoned for transport.
When the population of Bunbury increases 10 fold, the report may be dusted off and revisited.
For info, HGM became Maunsell and then AECOM.
The option of using the Mandurah line and following the median of the highway from about Lakelands or going across to Pinjarra was included in the report.

This would have been the "South West Passenger Rail Transport Study" I believe? Would you happen to have a full copy of this report available? I used to have the full copy on my old hard drive, but can only seem to find a small extract of the report, and a partial executive summary online these days.

Cheers,

Matt.

This would have been the "South West Passenger Rail Transport Study" I believe? Would you happen to have a full copy of this report available? I used to have the full copy on my old hard drive, but can only seem to find a small extract of the report, and a partial executive summary online these days.

Cheers,

Matt.

Sorry Matt, I don't have hard or electronic copy. I suspect there are not many copies around.

Does this help for the 2003 report?

http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/swpassrail_cba_report.pdf (2.7MB)

Does this help for the 2003 report?

http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/swpassrail_cba_report.pdf (2.7MB)

That is great and I have bookmarked it.

Does this help for the 2003 report?

http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/swpassrail_cba_report.pdf (2.7MB)




Wow, with 126 pages this going to take some time to wade thru and digest. Thanks for posing it

Does this help for the 2003 report?

http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20050620084137/http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/regional/southwestpassrail/swpassrail_cba_report.pdf (2.7MB)

Excellent work Mouse,  much appreciated!