A TRAIN station will be built at Paganoni Road in Karnup if the Labor Party wins the State election next year.
As part of Labor’s recently announced Metronet rail service, the proposed Karnup station will service the northern suburbs of Mandurah including Lakelands and Madora Bay.
The station is designed to lure traffic from the over-crowded Mandurah station from suburbs such as Singleton, Golden Bay and Secret Harbour.
With Paganoni Road already an established road connecting the northern Mandurah suburbs to the Kwinana Freeway, the move is the right one according to Member for Warnbro Paul Papalia.
“For us the State must move forward,” he said.
Opposition Transport Minister Ken Travers said the Metronet announcement highlighted Labor’s commitment to public transport and the Peel region.
“With the amount of people using public transport, trains are the backbone of the network; not light rail,” he said.
“Corridors with increased activity will be serviced by the train system.”
With developments across Singleton, Golden Bay and Secret Harbour, plus extra housing areas in Madora Bay and Lakelands, the northern corridor of Mandurah is only expected to increase in size; which Mr Papalia said was why this station was essential.
Mr Travers said the network would not be an overnight job and expected the project would take two terms of government to really make progress.
Mandurah MLA David Templeman welcomed the rail plan as a “huge boost” to the region.
“We finally get a new station north of Mandurah which will take the parking pressure off our only station at the Mandurah terminus,” he said.
Mr Templeman also praised the proposed extension of the Armadale line through to Pinjarra.
“The proposal to extend the rail line through to Pinjarra in the Murray Shire is outstanding,” he said.
Mr Travers said given Mandurah and the southern suburbs of Perth were major growth areas the Kwinana Freeway could only be expanded so far to cater for the growing demand.
Mr Travers said recent figures showed by 2026, 2.3million people will call WA home, up from 1.7million now.
Plans had been originally drawn up in May 2009 to build a station at Karnup to keep up with the population demand but nothing eventuated from there.
Minister for Transport Troy Buswell was contacted for comment.
