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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

In celebration of Freo making the grand final, train frequencies to Fremantle will be doubled on grand final day, and travel will be free. I don’t recall this level of celebration back in 2018 🤔

rita_saffioti

EXTRA TRAINS THE WAY TO GO 💜⚓

We’re DOUBLING the number of trains heading to Freo this Saturday!

Between 9:30am and 6:00pm, Ellenbrook Line trains will be extended down to Fremantle, boosting capacity for the thousands of people expected to hit the streets this Saturday.

Public transport will also be completely FREE across the Transperth network, making it the best way to get down and watch the Grand Final.

Plan your journey at www.transperth.wa.gov.au or on the Transperth app

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Claisebrook station. It’s close to the city but is surrounded by a freeway on one side and a train depot on the other. It’s only access is via long ramps, making transferring lines and accessing the station inconvenient. (the station is at the junction of the Midland and Armadale corridors)

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

More proof that people in Perth hate trees

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The Perth ferry expansion business case is out. What caught my eye are these passenger projections. A: I find it hard to believe that there is so little difference between 15 minute and 30 minute frequencies B: I feel like these projections are very optimistic.

15‑minute service frequency
• 3.2 million extra trips by 2030
• 7.5 million extra trips by 2055

20‑minute service frequency
• 3.1 million extra trips by 2030
• 7.2 million extra trips by 2055

30‑minute service frequency
• 3.0 million extra trips by 2030
• 7.1 million extra trips by 2055

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Perth’s version of this map is just the default network map, with every line at 15 minutes

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Gus @unspecificocean.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I have made these diagrams of the Sydney suburban rail network that show each service pattern that runs every 30 minutes as a separate line. There are separate diagrams for weekday off-peak services and weekend services.

A diagram of the Sydney suburban rail network showing weekday off-peak service patterns. Each line represents a service pattern that runs every 30 minutes, except for thicker lines which represent more frequent service patterns, with the frequency for these lines noted. A dot on a line indicates that that service pattern stops at a station. Different stations have different combinations of dots on the lines that go through the station, showing how at some stations, certain service patterns stop at the station and certain service patterns skip it.

A diagram of the Sydney suburban rail network showing weekend service patterns. Each line represents a service pattern that runs every 30 minutes, except for thicker lines which represent more frequent service patterns, with the frequency for these lines noted. A dot on a line indicates that that service pattern stops at a station. Different stations have different combinations of dots on the lines that go through the station, showing how at some stations, certain service patterns stop at the station and certain service patterns skip it.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Labor has got to be kicking itself for not having already built Karnup station ahead of the Secret Harbour by-election. If they lose by a narrow margin, it’s conceivable that the station was a deciding factor.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I’ve been thinking about the potential for converting the freight rail line from Fremantle to Coogee into light rail when the new outer harbour opens. Looks like the PTA are considering what to do with this corridor too. westport.wa.gov.au/info-hub/faqs

What will happen to the freight rail currently operating between Fremantle and Cockburn?

The Public Transport Authority are investigating future opportunities to repurpose the current freight rail corridor between Fremantle and Cockburn for public transport purposes.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The Mandurah and Yanchep lines combined make up over half of Perth's rail patronage, despite having less than a third of the network's stations.

As of June 2026:

Mandurah: 33.2%
Yanchep: 24.0%
Fremantle: 8.1%
Airport: 8.9%
Midland: 5.7%
Ellenbrook: 6.0%
Armadale: 8.2%
Thornlie-Cockburn: 5.8%

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Per capita patronage has still not reached pre-Covid levels, but it's close and could surpass it next year. We are way behind 2011-2013 levels though.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Per capita patronage has still not reached pre-Covid levels, but it's close and could surpass it next year. We are way behind 2011-2013 levels though.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Transperth's patronage up to June 2026 is now out: the system overall has set a new record of 161,223,754 boardings in a year, and trains have set a new record of 73,749,274 boardings, destroying the previous record set in 2012-13 thanks to the reopening of the Armadale and Thornlie lines.

pta.wa.gov.au

Transport performance

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

We need to destroy the western suburbs

From The Post newspaper:

Metronet myth busted

By BRET CHRISTIAN

A local family saves a deposit,
buys a unit near a western
suburb train station and happily drops the car keys in a
drawer, hardly expecting to
need them again.
They can walk to the local shops,
cafes, bars and entertainment.
Fast trains are just at the end
of their street for long journeys.
This is the dream being
sold by Planning and Housing
Minister John Carey for his
“walkable” Transport Oriented
Developments, or TODs.
His latest announcement of
vast areas planned for highdensity development for 800m
around Cottesloe’s train stations have sent anxious shivers through many residents of
established suburbs (Circles of
Doom swallow our heritage streets,
POST, August 1).
But the dream is a fantasy.
Although the process is in its
infancy, early evidence is that
high-rise living near Metronet
stations will neither get people
out of their cars nor end urban
sprawl.
But once destroyed, nothing
can bring back the charm and
liveability of the carefully-curated homes and streets caught
inside Mr Carey’s very wide net.
There is no argument that
Metronet trains are valuable for
fixed point-to-point journeys if
there is a station near the workplace, footy oval or the airport.
But the evidence does not
support little use of car keys of
residents of these new towers.
Some expert opinions, backed
up by what is actually happening in the western suburbs,
indicate that people will always
choose their cars for multi-point
journeys.
Modern cars are private,
convenient, safe, comfortable,
climate-controlled music and
communication hubs that can
deliver a whole series of quick
benefits that trains can never
provide.
People who can afford them
use them, said Professor Patrick
Troy in an ABC debate 20 years
ago with local planning professor Peter Newman.
Prof. Newman, from Curtin
University, has long advocated
for Metronet and its TODs, with
his ideas adopted wholesale by
successive governments.

Prof. Troy, who was raised
in Perth and died in 2018, was
regarded for many decades as
Australia’s pre-eminent urban
policy thinker.
He argued that high-rise developments near transit centres
failed to reduce car use, while at
the same time reducing resident
amenity.
He maintained that the justification, to contain suburban
sprawl, was an emotional term
he said was used as an excuse by
people who had run out of ideas.
Sprawl was still happening
in big European cities that had
dense cores.
“Growth remains essential for
environmental sustainability
and equitable quality of life,”
he said.
Mr Carey evidently supports
this, too. Last year he authorised
the release of another 8300ha of
greenfield land for subdivision
in Perth’s northern suburbs for
20,000 new houses.
He again promoted TODs at
Bayswater station this week,
saying that it would help prevent
Perth’s outer suburbs reaching
Geraldton.
“One of the great fallacies
of this Transport Oriented
Development argument is that
we know that 80% of the population who live in houses want
to stay in houses, and 85% of
the population who live in flats
want to live in houses,” Prof.
Troy said.
Another TOD fallacy was
based on the old-fashioned notion that most people worked in
central hubs such as Perth and
Fremantle. They don’t.
Metro Perth is highly decentralised, he said. Far-flung
shopping centres, hospitals,
and huge industrial estates are
often accessible only by car. And
commuters often need to make
other stops on their journeys to
and from work.
“People have always wanted
to travel wherever they wanted,
to travel under the conditions
of comfort and security of their
choice,” Prof. Troy said.
“They’ve always sought to do
that as their economies and the
wealth and standard of living
has increased.”
In other words, even if home
and work are on Metronet, there
are kids to be picked up on the
way home, another stop to load
shopping in the boot, stops for
sport with all the equipment,
gym, sauna, music lessons, doctor, hair…

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I feel like Melbourne should be able to deliver the Airport line for less than $3 billion just by tunnelling from the Craigieburn line? Why don't they do that?

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

A 9 storey social and affordable housing development less than 100 m from Bayswater station has attracted 178 public submissions, with 142 objections, 20 in support and 16 neutral. Opponents said it is too big, there’s not enough parking, and it will destroy the area’s heritage.

perthnow.com.au

Social and affordable housing development sparks backlash

A proposed nine-storey $33.9 million social and affordable housing development in the heart of Bayswater has sparked concerns over its height, parking and impact on heritage.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Now can we have a by-election in South Perth please..

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Now can we have a by-election in South Perth please..

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

That Perth replacing its trams with buses was an improvement.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

KARNUP STATION IS GETTING BUILT!? archive.md/Ff2JN

archive.md

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Liberals apparently want to build Karnup station if elected in 2029. This might be what it takes to get Labor to built it. archive.md/URa3M

archive.md

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

This is one of the things that Peter Martinovich mentions when saying that construction costs in Western Australia are cheaper. Everything (or at least all major things) are planned out before construction begins here.

files.parliament.nsw.gov.au

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Every Adelaide Station @every-adl-station.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I also wrote up some code to plot the data for each route, using the location data for each stop. Here the area of each circle is proportional to the number of boardings at the stop. I've annotated the busiest sections of each route.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

According to Building Beautifully’s latest video, the cross passages are 240 m apart on the Sydney Metro. We are not consistent on this in Australia.

youtube.com

The English-world is TERRIBLE at building transit. This is why.

YouTube video by Building Beautifully

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Rumour has it that the train involved here has been written off

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The eight least busiest Transperth bus routes as of 2024, in no particular order: 223 (Thornlie station feeder) 272 (Kalamunda) 273 (Kalamunda) 285 (East Vic Park to Kewdale) 294 (High Wycombe stn to Foodbank WA) 326 (Midland station) 534 (Aubin Grove to Wattleup) 604 (Mandurah to South Yunderup)

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The nine busiest Transperth bus routes as of 2024, in no particular order: 907 (Perth to Armadale) 910 (Perth to Thornlie) 930 (Elizabeth Quay to Fremantle) 950 (Morley to QEII Medical Centre) 990 (Perth to Scarborough) 998 and 999 (Circleroute) Red Cat Blue Cat

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

As it turns out, 9 of the 10 most used Transperth stations are on the Mandurah and Yanchep lines. The sole exception is Fremantle station.

A map of the transperth rail network. The most used stations are highlighted:

Perth (including Perth Underground): 19,194,972
Elizabeth Quay: 3,466,752
Murdoch: 2,225,280
Cockburn Central: 1,773,636
Warwick: 1,452,288
Joondalup: 1,362,886
Bull Creek: 1,281,732
Fremantle: 1,277,074
Stirling: 1,183,278
Mandurah: 1,090,314

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Interesting, this made me see how close the Forrestfield-Airport Link's cross passages are. They seem to be about every 400 m, so between the US and European standards. We had some problems with one of the cross passages (sinkhole) which delayed the project, so less is good in that aspect too.

Cross passages are about every 400 m apart.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

WA government is investigating an eastern extension of ferry services too, with services potentially as far as Belmont and Maylands. There is a tender out for demand modelling this ferry service. www.tenders.wa.gov.au/watenders/te...

Background

The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) is progressing investigations into the
Eastern Expansion of Transperth Ferry services on the Swan River as part of a staged program
to expand ferry operations and improve cross-river connectivity.
As a 2025 State Election Commitment, the Western Australian Government committed funding
to expand ferry services, with Stage 1 (Western Expansion) currently being delivered by the
Transport Portfolio. In parallel, investigations are being undertaken into a potential Eastern
Expansion, with candidate locations including Elizabeth Quay, Point Fraser, Burswood, Optus
Stadium, Claisebrook Cove, Belmont Park West, Maylands, Belmont Park East, Rivervale,
Maylands peninsula and Belmont.
To support development of a Strategic Business Case for the Eastern Expansion, PTA requires
specialist ferry-specific demand modelling and behavioural analysis. This procurement seeks a
suitably qualified consultant to design and deliver ferry-specific demand analysis, surveys and
modelling inputs that integrate with a whole-of-network strategic transport model. Scope of
Services

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Jonathan Huston is Parliament's biggest opponent of the Matilda Bay ferry terminal. I wonder whether the Liberal's will shift in their opposition to it now. Basil wasn't as opposed as Huston

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

And in Perth, the rollout of credit card payments for Transperth services has gone perfectly. No news about it since December. No news is good news.

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Railmaps @railmaps.com.au · 21/06/2026

After a hiatus of 3 years, passenger train services between Perth and Bunbury will resume on June 29th with the entry to service of the first of the new Australind diesel railcar sets. The four new trains will be named: Marley Kwilena Koombana Linda www.facebook.com/RogerCookMLA...

facebook.com

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Saw a glimpse of one of the new Australind trains at Claisebrook today

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

This was bound to happen. The footpath along West Coast Drive is busy (especially in summer) and very close to the road in parts, with no barriers at all.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Here’s CCTV of the incident. The truck driver seems to drive right through a boom gate right before the train hits the truck

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Every Adelaide Station @every-adl-station.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Adelaide Metro has publicly available data on card validations (i.e. passenger numbers), separated by day, route and stop - data.sa.gov.au/data/dataset... I've compiled the train station data for 2025 here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Here are the 20 most and least used stations last year:

Spreadsheet showing the 20 most used Adelaide train stations for 2025

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Railmaps @railmaps.com.au · 22/04/2026

The Australind train service between Perth and Bunbury will resume on June 29th when the first of four new diesel railcar trains enters service. As the remainder of the fleet arrives, the number of services will increase to double the former two return trips per day. www.wa.gov.au/government/m...

wa.gov.au

Australind train service set to return between Perth and Bunbury | Western Australian Government

The Australind train service is set to formally resume from Monday, 29 June 2026.

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

The fuel shortage has led to record patronage on buses and trains in Perth for March 7,148,879 train boardings in particular far surpasses the previous monthly record of 6,406,409 in October last year.

pta.wa.gov.au

Transport performance

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Midmantle @midmantle.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Is Perth the fastest growing (%) major city in the western world? Surely it beats anywhere in Europe. Maybe somewhere in US/Canada is higher?

The latest ABS regional population estimates

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/regional-population/2024-25

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Naththan @nathanpittman.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

“Anthony Albanese … is encouraging people to take public transport where they can”… by reducing the relative cost of driving. Right.

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