First railcars arrive at new Nowergup train depot

13/6/04
The State Government's New MetroRail Project achieved a major milestone today with the unveiling of the first of 93 state-of-the-art railcars at the new $36million purpose-built Nowergup Depot, north of Clarkson.
Premier Geoff Gallop and Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan jointly opened the new depot, which will ultimately service all trains operating between Clarkson and Mandurah.
The $300million contract with EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd to manufacture the new trains and build the massive depot has been delivered on time and on budget.
Dr Gallop said 31 new three-railcar sets would be delivered to Perth during the next two years as the State Government's $1.518billion New MetroRail Project effectively doubled Perth's passenger rail network.
Under the project, the northern suburbs railway would be extended to Clarkson by October this year - at this time, five of the new three-car sets would be ready to increase capacity and comfort for passengers on the northern suburbs line.

The Premier said today's railcar unveiling and depot opening highlighted another important component of the New MetroRail Project.
"To date, much of the project's focus has been on the southern suburbs railway from Perth to Mandurah," he said.
"The project will also see major improvements in the capacity of the highly successful northern suburbs railway.
"Apart from extending the railway from Currambine to Clarkson, we are building a new station at Greenwood and extending platforms at all stations along the line.
"We will have longer trains servicing more people throughout the fast-growing northern suburbs."
When completed, the New MetroRail Project will see a doubling of both the length of the existing passenger rail network as well as the number of railcars - providing new services to almost half-a-million Perth residents.
Ms MacTiernan said the state-of-art railcars were capable of travelling at speeds of up to 130kph - a trip from Clarkson to Perth would take just 30 minutes and Clarkson to Mandurah 78 minutes.
When fully operational, the depot would be home to about 100 staff.
"Being able to deliver the first new railcars to Nowergup on time and just two years after the contract was awarded has been a major achievement," the Minister said.
"The New MetroRail Project team and the contractor should be congratulated for their excellent effort.
"Track testing of the new railcars will now commence."
Ms MacTiernan said 85 per cent of contracts for the New MetroRail Project had now been signed.
The last outstanding contracts - to build nine stations on the Southern Suburbs Railway - would be awarded by the end of this year.
"We are well on our way to building a clean, fast, world-class public transport system," she said.
Minister's office: 9213 6400

RAILCAR FAST FACTS

The new railcars will have a maximum operating speed of 130kph enabling, for example, the journey from Perth to Mandurah to be completed within 48 minutes inclusive of eight stops along the way.
All systems on the railcars will be controlled by an advanced on board computer.
The railcars will provide an enhanced level of passenger safety and comfort with the following features incorporated:

• digital closed circuit television (CCTV) - the passenger compartments are covered by four cameras with the images being continually recorded;
• passenger information displays - all route information such as the next station will be displayed on these signs; and
• access for people with disabilities - audio loops have been installed to allow people with hearing aids to access all messages played over the public address system and four bays per passenger compartment will be installed for use by people in wheelchairs or with prams etc. Two of these bays will be extended to cater for people with bicycles.

The railcars were designed and built in Australia, at EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation's Pty Ltd's Queensland facilities in Brisbane and Maryborough.
Nowergup Depot Fast Figures
The Nowergup Depot is a massive facility - it is 2km-long and has been designed to sit in the median of the future Mitchell Freeway extension.
The scale of the depot can be demonstrated by the following statistics regarding materials used;

• 70 tonnes of concrete;
• 270 tonnes of steel;
• 600 tonnes of rail;
• 9500 steel sleepers; and
• 7km of track.

EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd arranged construction of the depot and engaged Thiess Pty Ltd to construct the facility on their behalf. The depot will house approximately 100 staff (PTA and EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd) when fully operating after commencement of services to Mandurah.
The depot consists of five main buildings - an inspection and maintenance building, drivers sign-on building, roof and bogie cleaning building, internal car cleaning platform, and an external car wash building.
The fully-automated external car wash is 60m long and 7.5m wide, which would make it about six times the size of the average local service station carwash.
About EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd
EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd is a joint venture between Downer EDI's rail division, EDI Rail Pty Ltd and the global transport manufacturer Bombardier Transportation. EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd, under previous ownership, has been operating in Australia for more than 25 years and has manufactured all of Perth's current electric railcar fleet to date.
Downer EDI has mining, infrastructure maintenance and manufacturing interests in Western Australia, and EDI Rail already have a significant presence in Perth at Forrestfield. However, Bombardier, who are major players in the aerospace industry as suppliers of business jets and recreational products (including Lear jet and SeeDoo products), will now have a significant presence in Perth as a result of EDI Rail - Bombardier Transportation Pty Ltd running Nowergup Depot.

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