Armadale line

History

The South Western Railway between Perth and Pinjarra, Western Australia, opened on 22 May 1893. An extension south to Bunbury opened on 22 August 1893. Services were operated by the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR). Initially, the railway had a limited passenger service, run by mixed trains. Suburban service were not provided, with trains going all the way to Bunbury.

By 1900, there were three daily suburban return services from Perth to Cannington. Kelmscott and Armadale were considered to be country towns, and were served by the daily train to and from Bunbury. By 1906, there were suburban services along the South Western Railway as far as Maddington. Seaforth station opened on 4 May 1948 as the line's first new station in several decades.

Diesel railcars were introduced in 1954, starting with the WAGR ADG class. Those trains could manage more closely spaced stations than steam-hauled ones, so three new stations opened on 28 November 1954: Oats Street, Higham (now Beckenham), and Stokely (closed 1989). By 1954, suburban services ran as far as Armadale station. Because the Armadale line was not as busy as the Fremantle and Midland lines, the Armadale line had a train every 40 minutes, as opposed to the other lines, which had trains every 20 minutes.

Suburban development in Perth's south-east corridor rapidly increased following the adoption of the Metropolitan Region Scheme in 1961 and the Corridor Plan for Perth in 1970. Kingsley (now Sherwood) and Challis stations both opened in 1973 between Kelmscott and Armadale stations. Only after the 1979 closure of the Fremantle line was there enough rolling stock for Armadale line services to reach the frequency of Midland line services. On 2 July 1980, a redeveloped Kelmscott station opened, with a bus interchange on the station platform. That was an early example of a bus-train interchange that would become commonplace on the later Yanchep and Mandurah lines.

Transperth was adopted as the trading name of the Metropolitan Transport Trust in 1986. The Armadale line was electrified in the early 1990s, with the electric Transperth A-series trains entering service in September 1991. Stokely station was closed on 16 April 1989 because it was the Armadale line's least-used station and close to Maddington station. Closing Lathlain station was proposed as well, but it remained open during electrification. In 2003, the Public Transport Authority was formed to take over from WAGR and the Department of Transport. Between 21 March 1993 and 8 August 2005, trains on the Armadale line continued through Perth to the Joondalup line, now known as the Yanchep line.

New MetroRail

Main article: New MetroRail

As part of New MetroRail in the 2000s, Carlisle and Victoria Park stations were upgraded, Lathlain station was closed on 3 February 2003, and the Miller Street bridge in Lathlain and the Gerard Street bridge in East Cannington were built to replace level crossings. The Thornlie line, a branch of the Armadale line south of Beckenham station, was opened on 7 August 2005. A reconstructed Armadale station opened on 6 November 2004, and the new and relocated Victoria Park station opened on 2 August 2008.

Perth Stadium station

Belmont Park station closed on 13 October 2013 to be replaced by Perth Stadium station, which opened on 2 December 2017 to serve Perth Stadium (known for sponsorship reasons as Optus Stadium). The station has six platforms and is served by additional express services from the Fremantle, Yanchep and Mandurah lines during events, using the Armadale line tracks. Initially operating during events only, a weekend service was added in 2018 and trains began stopping seven days a week from 2 April 2024.

Metronet

Main article: Metronet (Western Australia)

As part of Metronet, the Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal Project elevated the Armadale line along sections between Victoria Park and Beckenham. Five stations were rebuilt: Carlisle, Oats Street, Queens Park, Cannington and Beckenham, Welshpool station was permanently closed, and six level crossings were removed. Metronet also oversaw the extension of the line south to Byford, which included elevating the line through Armadale to remove 3 level crossings, creating a new elevated Armadale station. While these projects were completed, the PTA undertook the Rail Revitalisation Program, a maintenance project which upgraded the 15 km of track and made minor improvements to the remaining level crossings between the Victoria Park and Byford projects.

In February 2022, it was announced that an 18-month-long shutdown of the Armadale line would need to occur to construct the Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal and the Byford Rail Extension projects. This shutdown was initially planned to begin in early-2023, but was delayed in August 2022 to late-2023. The shutdown, which closed the line between Victoria Park and Armadale stations, commenced on 20 November 2023. Armadale line services reopened as far as Cannington in June 2025 with the opening of the Thornlie-Cockburn line which would also service the new Beckenham station. The remainder of the line past Beckenham, including the Byford Rail Extention opened on 12 October 2025.

The currently-budgeted cost for the Byford extension is $797 million, and the currently-budgeted cost for the Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal Project is $1.047 billion.

Description

The Armadale line uses narrow gauge track and has a maximum speed of 130 km/h. Trains are powered by overhead line equipment which is powered by substations in Beckenham and East Perth.

The Armadale line uses fixed block signalling. As part of Metronet's High Capacity Signalling Project, the Transperth rail network will be upgraded to moving block signalling using communications-based train control (CBTC). As of 2021, the CBTC system is planned to be implemented on the Armadale and Thornlie lines by June 2031.

Stations

Former stations

Service

Trains operate between Perth and Byford stopping at all stations. Services operate at a 7.5 minute frequency on peak, every 15 minutes off peak and every 30 minutes at night. Operating hours are from roughly 5:00 am to 1:00 am, extending to 3:00 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Transperth train services are operated by the PTA's Transperth Train Operations division. Before the start of the shutdown, Armadale line trains operated at four trains per hour during the day, rising to seven trains per hour during peak. At night, frequencies reduced to every half an hour, and every hour late at night. Armadale line trains typically stopped at all stations between Armadale and Cannington and skipped most stations between Cannington and Perth, with the exception of Oats Street, Claisebrook, and McIver stations. Thornlie line trains instead stopped at all stations between Cannington and Perth. Armadale line trains only stopped at all stations on Sundays when Thornlie line trains were less frequent, and late at night when Thornlie line trains did not operate.

Rolling stock

The Armadale line is served primarily by Transperth A-series trains, with Transperth B-series trains occasionally used as well. By 2031, it is planned that all A-series trains will be retired, leaving the Armadale line to be served primarily by B-series trains. The A-series trains were built between 1991 and 1999 and consist of two cars which are usually joined together to form four car trains. Each car has two doors on each side. The B-series trains were built between 2004 and 2019, consist of three cars each and have two doors on the side of each car. These trains are all primarily stored at Claisebrook depot.

Patronage

The Armadale and Thornlie–Cockburn lines combined are the third most patronised Transperth lines, after the Mandurah line and the Yanchep line. The two lines combined received 3,878,183 boardings in the year to June 2024.

| Armadale/Thornlie

References

Bibliography

References

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