MAYLANDS MLA Lisa Baker says Bayswater train station is “the centre of the universe” following Federal Labor’s $700 million funding commitment towards the Morley-Ellenbrook train line.
The commitment from Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Federal Labor comes after $20 million was allocated in the 2017-18 State Budget to begin detailed planning and design work on the project.
The Metronet Morley-Ellenbrook line will serve Perth’s north-eastern suburbs, connecting them to public transport, reducing road congestion and creating jobs.
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READ NOWMs Baker said the train line was going to be a three to five year project.
“We already started the initial planning around this and the additional state funding is going to be allocated in the next budget following the development of the business case,” she said.
“The exciting thing is that you cannot really build the Morley-Ellenbrook line unless you build the Bayswater-Morley-Ellenbrook line.
“What we know about the geotechnical aspects for the line that runs from Bayswater to Morley is that there is differing levels of land that we need to work out how will the tunnel come up and connect to Morley-Ellenbrook.”
Ms Baker said the State Government had earmarked $86.2 million to do works at the Bayswater train station which would not be spent until there was a “big vision” formed for the town.
“I think it is well-timed that we went back to the people of Bayswater and have a conversation with them about how this is going to work out,” she said.
Work on detailed planning and design has started, including finalising the route, and station locations, station precinct planning and considering land sales and value capture opportunities.
Construction of the Metronet project is set to start in 2019.
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