Understorey: Metronet’s Missing Links

In 2010 Premier Colin Barnett told the Chamber of Commerce that Perth was headed for a “decade of light rail.” Ten years on, the city transport planners have a full desk of tram routes announced, reformulated, abandoned, promised and now quietly delayed. Understorey’s Adrian Glamorgan takes us through the early warnings of Senator Scott Ludlam in 2011, and the hopes in 2016 prior to the last state election by Labor’s Shadow Transport Minister Rita Saffioti that light rail would be an equal Stage 1 priority. But with Labor’s heavy focus on the heavy rail component of Metronet, by 2019 the department had only lodged a light rail “problem identification” with Infrastructure Australia, short of a business plan. But there may be hope for Metronet’s missing links. Tom Griffiths from the Southwest Group (an alliance of six councils southwest of the river, from Melville to Rockingham) discusses the “proof of concept” case the councils have made for a Murdoch to Fremantle dedicated public transport corridor, possibly for light rail or the trackless tram. In Victoria Park, once home of Perth’s tram depot, Greens candidate Tim Young calls for a range of transport responses, to ensure urban infill supported by an array of transport responses build a convivial city towards 2050. (Photo: collage from wikimedia commons: Canberra light rail By Bidgee; Jpatokal Sydney Light Rail both CC BY-SA 3.0; Gold Coast light rail David Ansen CC BY-SA 2.0)