Stuck in traffic: 60 per cent of Perth has no decent public transport
New analysis has found more than 1.2 million people living in Perth don’t have access to frequent, all-day public transport, leaving them stuck using polluting and expensive cars for most of their trips.
The Climate Council study found Perth was the second-worst out of Australia’s five largest capital cities for access to frequent, convenient and reliable public transport.
The Armadale line shutdown started in November 2023. Credit: Public Transport Authority
The minimum level of public transport service considered to be necessary for people to choose it over a car trip is a service running every 15 minutes between 7am-7pm, within 800 metres of the home.
Brisbane had the worst access, with 66.4 per cent of residents lacking such services, followed by Perth (59.5 per cent), Adelaide (52.4 per cent), Melbourne (47.5 per cent) and Sydney (32.8 per cent).
The report, Next Stop Suburbia: Making Shared Transport Work for Everyone in Aussie Cities, shows some of the biggest service gaps across the country are in Kwinana, Mandurah and Armadale. The best availability in Perth is in the CBD, Belmont, Victoria Park and Fremantle.
Climate Council policy and advocacy head Jennifer Rayner said access to good public transport ended around 12 kilometres from the city centre for most people.
“Only one in five people in Perth use shared and active transport to get to work,” she said.
“That’s because too many communities are being left in the lurch and unable to access services that meet their needs.
“With a step-up in investment from all levels of government, we can transform one of the world’s most car-dependent cities like Perth to give more people a better choice of fast, convenient and reliable clean transport options.”
According to a 2019 Infrastructure Australia report, every day in Perth private cars undertake 2.8 million trips of less than 5 kilometres.
In most cities, the difference in public transport access is significantly worse when comparing poorer and wealthier areas, with Perth’s poorer areas seeing 18 per cent less accessible public transport.
People living in high-growth areas in middle and outer suburbs are significantly under-served by public transport, despite being the places where it would have the biggest cost-of-living benefit.
Rayner said people travelling anywhere across Perth, at any time throughout the day, should be able to simply “turn up and go” from A to B.
She said while major city-shaping projects such as Metronet were important, sometimes simple investments like better buses and bike paths in the suburbs could make the biggest and fastest difference.
“State governments are in a prime position to deliver more frequent, convenient, and reliable public transport for their communities,” she said.
“Investment in public transport projects which support more people to travel between home, school, work, goods, services, and leisure activities is exactly what we need to see more of.
“Our analysis shows communities like Mandurah and Armadale clearly need better public transport links, so it’s great to see planning under way to deliver this.”
The Armadale line ground to a halt in November for a record-breaking 18-month shutdown, pushing 13,000 regular users onto the roads, as part of the state government’s biggest ever spend on infrastructure: $12 billion on expanding train lines to outer suburbia.
Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said at the time she envisaged a “turn up and go” rail network that reached more people with trains running every few minutes.
“We’re moving towards that “no timetable” service that if you go to this point, you know there will be a bus or train that rocks up in three to four minutes,” she said.
A state government spokeswoman said the long-running High-Capacity Signalling project would replace train control systems on Perth’s passenger rail network, allowing more trains to run more often.
“Once delivered, it will enable more train services to be delivered by reducing the headway between trains so they can safely operate closer together, resulting in an increase in the frequency of services,” she said.
The preferred proponent for the project was announced in April.
Climate councillor and public health physician Kate Charlesworth said clogged city roads were a familiar sight but we needed smarter, healthier transport solutions than simply building more roads, which added to congestion and climate pollution.
“Particulate pollution from cars adversely impacts our hearts and lungs, and pregnant women and children,” she said.
“It’s estimated to be responsible for more than 11,000 premature deaths in Australian adults.
“For the sake of our health, governments should step up investment that helps more people in Perth use shared and active transport more often.”
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