Mandurah Railway Line

## Mandurah Line

### Services

All Stops Perth - MandurahW Pattern Perth - Cockburn K Pattern Perth - Rockingham

### Stations Served

* Perth Underground
* Elizabeth Quay
* Canning Bridge
* Bull Creek
* Murdoch
* Cockburn Central
* Aubin Grove
* Kwinana
* Wellard
* Rockingham
* Warnbro
* Lakelands
* Mandurah

The Mandurah Line opened on the 23rd of December 2007 connecting Perths southern suburbs such as Cockburn and Rockingham and towns such as Mandurah with Perths CBD running into newly built dedicated tunnels running into Perth Underground and Elizabeth Quay replacing the Joondalup Lines access into Perth Station but this is still used during events. These tunnels opened in October of 2007.

## History

**The Mandurah Line** was first brought up in the 1990 SWAT Plain which proposed a Southern Suburbs Railway to Rockingham and Mandurah. Two route options were put forward, the first being an extension of the Fremantle Line which would electrify the Kwinana Freight Line and spur off Beckenham on the Armadale Line. This spur would also follow the Kwinana Line. In 1991 planning for the Southern Suburbs Railway was transferred to the Western Australian Department Of Transport. Under the government planning the Railway Line was replaced with a Fremantle and southern suburbs light rail line. By 1992 a southern suburbs busway was ruled out and the government promised a rail line from Fremantle to Rockingham and Mandurah but had not decided if it was to be a heavy or light rail line. Prior to the 1993 state election the incumbent Labour Party promised to build a railway line to Rockingham by 1996 with an extension to Mandurah opening by 2001.

In 1992 or 1993 WestRail was asked separately to investigate a more direct route that would via Cockburn Central instead of Fremantle which run into the Perth CBD with its own dedicated tunnels and stations. However this plan was deferred as the Narrows Bridge over the Swan River would be to narrow to fit a double track railway and the tunnels and new stations being to expensive. After the 1993 election the victorious Liberal Party put aside any plans for a Southern Suburbs Railway citing that it would be to expensive and the Joondalup Line had been opened to recently. As a result a study was launched into the viability of a busway or light rail into the southern suburbs which had previously been costed at 230 to 570 million dollars. So in August 1995 it was announced for a new Heavy Rail route which would branch off before Kenwick and would run down the Kwinana Freight Railway until the Kwinana Freeway which the line would then run in the median of said freeway. The rail line was set to be built in stages with the first stage to open in 10 years and cost 150 million dollars and run from Kenwick to a new station at Jandakot with all the stages costing nearly 600 million dollars. However most of the required land was acquired by the government in 1994.

The Government approved the creation of a Master Plan for the construction of the line in April 1997 with the plan officially approved by 1999. The plan would create a route starting at Perth running along an upgraded Armadale Line until Kenwick which it would then run into a tunnel under the Armadale Line, Albany and Roe Highway which it would then come up and run parallel to the Kwinana Freight Railway until the new Glen Iris Tunnel under the Kwinana Freeway which the line would run in the median of.

After a change of government in 2001 an altered route was passed which would start from new underground platforms at Perth run through a pair of 1.6 kilometer long tunnels with a new Esplanade station serving the City Bus Station. Esplanade was proposed to have an emergency turnback on both ends of the station. The tunnels would end with the rail line coming up into the Kwinana Freeway median just north of the Narrows Bridge which would be widened. The line would then run in the freeway median until it met the original alignment. Due to the enhanced costs Rockingham was relocated from the city center to the outer edge avoiding land acquisition. Planning began for the altered route in August of 2002 with plans approved by November. The line included 8 "packages" each having their own plans with plan A being the most expensive. By February of 2004 all of the packages had been approved.

Construction began for package F in March of 2004 being the first package to begin construction. Works in package F were the construction of the new Esplanade and Perth Underground platforms as well as road layout modifications. The first TBM was lifted into the Esplanade Station box in August 2005 and started boring 2 months later. The TBM broke through at William Street Station on the 31st of August 2006 of which it was then sent back to Esplanade to bore the 2nd tunnel. The second tunnel was completed by October of 2006.