Mandurah City Mayor Marina Vergone has set her sights on building a train station in the suburb of Lakelands and has called on the government to deliver on the long-promised infrastructure.
The station, which was first planned when the rail line to Mandurah was built more than a decade ago, is not on the state government’s agenda, but Mayor Vergone said the Commonwealth is considering paying for the $100 million construction with budget funds it had set aside for rail projects.
Mayor Vergone said the station was promised to people who bought in the area believing government assurances it would be built.
However, the newly elected McGowan Labor Government promised at the election to build a station at Karnup instead.
“The train station hasn’t come, it was promised back in 2004 and here we are in 2017 and now they’re talking about sending it up to Karnup, not stopping at Lakelands, not putting the money into Lakelands,” Mayor Vergone said.
“Mandurah now has a population of over 85,000 and we have a larger catchment area if you look at the whole Peel region which is over 120,000 people.
“We need a second train station in Mandurah and we need it now, not in 10 or 20 years time.”
In 2012, Mandurah MP David Templeman told parliament in 2008 that Mandurah needed a new station and named Lakelands as his preferred site, repeating the commitment before the 2013 state election.
The government bought the site from Lakelands Private Estate developer Peet in 2001, with the company committing $10 million towards the construction of the station in 2008.
Then state transport minister Alannah MacTiernan told parliament a station would eventually be built, but it was “a question of prioritisation”.
Mayor Vergone said she would campaign to have the Lakelands station built as soon as possible, had lobbied Canning MP Andrew Hastie to seek his support and would be pushing the Commonwealth on funding for the project.
“I’ve spoken to our federal member Andrew Hastie and he’s gone and spoken to Angus Taylor [the Commonwealth cities minister] and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull,” she said.
“We’ve just got to work on the state government to get them over the line because I know they are pushing Karnup and we need to convince them that Lakelands is a much better option.”
Mr Hastie said he would throw his weight behind the Lakelands train station and confirmed he had met with the Prime Minister and Mr Taylor about the project to seek funding.
“Our region is in serious need of better public transport and securing a Lakelands train station has been among my top priorities for some time,” he said.
“The Lakelands train station will improve the lives of a lot of people. It will enhance social, educational and economic opportunities for people in the northern Mandurah suburbs.
“It will lift housing values in Lakelands – people want to live close to the coast and reliable public transport. It will also ease congestion at the Mandurah train station.”
Mr Hastie said the Perth-Mandurah rail line was listed as a priority in the $10 billion dollar National Rail Program, which was announced as part of the recent federal budget.
Mandurah MP David Templeman and state transport minister Rita Saffioti were contacted for comment.