https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/canberra-urged-to-back-wa-rail-project-ng-b88453835z

Interesting to see the RAC supporting this rail project as first priority, rather like RACV (and unlike NRMA).

I see the WA Transport Minister has announced that planning will resume on the light rail line. My earnest advice from east coast experience is that PTA WA take advantage of its huge talents and skill itself up to run this project entirely itself, as DoT in Queensland largely did with Gold Coast light rail, leading to an excellent result. The NSW consultant/consortium/manufacturer-led approach is a recipe for disaster.

Foremost, it's essential to bear in mind that trams are fundamentally a (higher-capacity) bus on rails, not a train on the street. Perth is up with world's best in its bus system and should continue to follow the same approach. The place to observe for exemplars in tram system design and operation is Central Europe (countries like Germany, Czech Republic, Austria,Switzerland) and definitely not from France, UK, Spain or from American or Australian consultancies that claim to have developed "light rail expertise". Melbourne is a curate's egg, it has some excellent things to offer and some rather poor ones.

Perth has Australia's best bus system on all criteria and this sets a very high bar for a tram system to better. It's essential that a tram system should be value-added over what the bus system is capable of, otherwise you will have a wasted investment and it would've been better to go for train lines if buses ultimately can't provide the capacity on a corridor.

The other critical thing is passenger experience - the risk of a one-sided choice between e.g. rocketing along in one of Perth's high-frequency bus services at headways down to every few minutes vs a characteristic modern Australian tram experience of ambling along lethargically at anything from 8 to 15 minute headways. This is a vital issue in determining success or failure.

I agree that the UWA-(possibly Subiaco)-CBD-Curtin-Canning Bridge corridor would be ideal for tram provided that it is implemented properly. The Mirrabooka corridor isn't really a goer and Perth's busiest bus route, the 950, is appropriately earmarked for rail. I'm also convinced now that Wellington St is the best path to cross the CBD. That Barrack St etc proposal was a bit of a disaster and didn't do the previous proposal any political favours. I think the section on the old Albany Hwy through Victoria Park is going to be challenging (only two lanes wide in parts) but there's not much choice and they'll just have to work away at it.

Tony P