THE first sods for the rail extension to Yanchep are likely to be turned in late 2019.
Two Rocks Yanchep Residents Association member Ed Whitchurch asked for the date at the group’s February 26 meeting.
Butler MLA John Quigley’s staffer Alex Figg said it would be in late 2019, and construction would take about a year and a half.
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READ NOW“It depends on when the final business case goes through,” Mr Figg said.
The 13.8km extension from Butler to Yanchep will include stations in Alkimos and Eglinton.
Mr Figg said there would be bus interchanges at the Alkimos and Yanchep stations and 1000 parking bays at each of the three stations.
Residents also discussed the push for an extension of the Mitchell Freeway from Hester Avenue to Romeo Road.
President Peter Wimsett said Pearce MHR Christian Porter had been running a campaign for the freeway extension, but Mr Quigley wanted the train first.
“(The government) are hoping to persuade people to use the train and not the freeway,” Mr Wimsett said.
“If you give people the freeway, they will get in their cars.”
According to the Metronet website, the Yanchep project has passed the business case development stage and shunted into the ‘project definition plan and precinct master plan’ stage.
The State Government expects trains to take 49 minutes to travel from Yanchep to Perth, with more than 8000 people boarding at Yanchep station, 2204 at Eglinton and 2700 at Alkimos by 2031.
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