The proposed Bayswater Station Upgrade has undergone the most extensive community engagement ever undertaken for a train station in Perth, with a concept design produced that balances the various priorities that stakeholders and the community identified for the station and future of the town centre.
Since the project was announced in March 2018, the METRONET team has considered the significant amount of feedback received in assessing a number of options to ensure it can improve connections across both sides of the railway, allow for increased bus services to the station, improve cycling and pedestrian movements in the area, and create a rail bridge and station that fits within the community.
The outcome is the proposed concept design, which sees a new Whatley Crescent-Beechboro Road connection under the rail bridge. This creates significant benefits for the Bayswater Town Centre, such as:
- Creating a dedicated public space around the proposed train station entry that provides potential commercial and community event opportunities
- Improving pedestrian connections with better phasing at the King William Street-Whatley Crescent intersection and a grade separated pedestrian connection ‘pub to police’
- Improving bus-train connections by integrating services with the local road network without requiring buses to turn in residential streets or operate from a large bus interchange within the town centre
- Balancing traffic movements under the railway to improve overall conditions within the town centre and decrease through traffic along the residential section of Whatley Crescent
- Supporting long-term opportunities for the retail precinct with increased visibility from improved pedestrian and traffic movements in the area
This road change will see a public space created between the new road up to Hamilton Street. This space has not yet been designed, but can accommodate a pathway that is Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant.
The design has also allowed space for a potential connection to the proposed Morley-Ellenbrook line.
The Public Transport Authority will take this concept design to industry in early 2019 to award a contract in late 2019. When this contract is awarded, the design will move into the next phase and may see more changes.
The Bayswater Station Upgrade is an opportunity to attract investment to the town centre and help it grow into a place in which people want to live, work and visit. It is also an extremely complex project with many engineering, traffic and access challenges to address.
This community engagement will continue as the team aims to accommodate as much feedback as possible, within the cost, space and technical parameters of this challenging project.
