Perth railway station

Perth Station including Perth Underground is the largest railway station in Perth, Western Australia, and functions as an interchange between the Transperth Trains "Armadale / Thornlie", "Joondalup", "Fremantle", "Midland" and "Mandurah" railway lines, as well as the Transwa Australind.

History

The Victorian style building was built between 1893 and 1894. It replaced an earlier station built when the railway first opened in 1881. The building has been renovated numerous times since being built, as well as the forecourt entrance area.

The station was the centre of the Western Australian Government Railways system - with most main-line trains leaving from this station. A collection of freight and administrative offices and tearooms were part of the railway station complex. "The Westland", "Albany Progress", and "The Mullewa" overnight passenger trains departed from this station.

Following the discontinuance of the overnight services, the extension of standard gauge tracks to East Perth station, and the relocation of most administrative offices to the new railway building alongside, Perth railway station remained as terminus for the Bunbury Australind passenger service, as well as suburban services.

The railway building has at times housed various commercial operations - as well as Police offices. The WA Craft Council was in the building in the 1980s ["Challenges : fine Western Australian crafts : Crafts Council of Western Australia, Crafts Council Centre, Perth City Railway Station".Perth, W.A : Crafts Council of W.A, 1987 (O'Connor: Porter and Salmon)]

For a considerable length of time the forecourt area was utilised for car parking. This is now very limited except for official vehicles. The building had the Barrack Street and William Street bridges as limiting factors to its development, and in its current state is connected to both bridges by escalators and walkways, though the William Street entrance is fenced off.

New underground platforms were developed to the east of William Street (between Wellington and Murray Streets) as part of the New MetroRail project. They are linked to the original Perth railway station via a walkway under Wellington Street, and there is also an entrance from the west end of the Murray Street pedestrian mall. Services commenced on the new platforms at 5:37am on October 15 2007. The new platforms, numbered 1 and 2, are known as Perth Underground but are also considered part of the overall Perth railway station. The new underground platforms, like the old Joondalup line platform, have no bins.

Other recent works to Perth railway station include the installation of SmartRider infrastructure, including Add Value Machines, fare gates, attendant offices and fencing.

Plaques in entrance area

* 1st March 1981 - Centenary of Fremantle to Guildford Railway
* 14th November 1989 - Perth-Joondalup Railway first spike driven
* 28th September 1991 - Introduction of Electric Trains
* 11th April 1992 - Commissioning Transperth Electric Train Service
* 25th March 1994 - Centenary of Railway station

ervices

Platforms

Platforms currently in use are as follows, see here for the old platform arrangements:

Bus routes

Several bus routes stop at the Perth Train Station. Buses are also provided at Wellington Street Bus Station for transfers with Perth Train Station.

Gallery

References

Further reading

* Finlayson, Don (1986) "Steam around Perth" ARHS WA - has photos of the earlier forms of the station - page 55 for example

External links

* [http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/ Transperth website]
* [http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.pic-an23148102 Vintage aerial photograph] by Frank Hurley at the National Library of Australia