THE State Government has scrapped plans to build a Thornlie to Mandurah rail line, the Opposition says.
In a WA Labor media statement released on Tuesday, Shadow Transport Minister Ken Travers said the Government had commissioned an animation of the Thornlie-Mandurah route in the run-up to last year’s State election.
During State Parliament on March 12, acting Transport Minister Colin Barnett’s representative was asked whether the company commissioned to design animations for an Ellenbrook bus rapid transit had produced any work for other Public Transport Authority projects during 2012-13.
Mr Barnett’s representative replied “yes”.
“The Public Transport Authority asked [the company] to design an animation for the Forrestfield–airport link project and an animation of the possible future extension of the Thornlie–Mandurah line,” he said.
The representative said each animation cost about $4750.
But Mr Travers said the Government had since dropped the plans, after spending close to $1.5million on planning consultants.
“The decision to walk away from this project shows the chaos and dysfunction in the Barnett Government’s approach to public transport planning,” he said.
“Further, it has wasted around $1.5m of WA taxpayers’ money on a project that now looks dead in the water.
“This in on top of the more than $1m they spent on planning the Ellenbrook Bus Rapid Transit before also dropping that project.
“These revelations will be extremely disappointing to the people in the southern suburbs.
“These are some of the State’s fastest-growing areas and the Mandurah connection would have significantly reduced congestion on local roads.”
The Transport Minister’s office has been contacted for comment.
