Perth Southern Rail link

["Forster Family Inc" <noelmel@wantree.com.au>]

Perth,the car capital of the Southern hemisphere,is to (maybe) get a new
rail line,it has been announced in today's press.
The line will link Perth with Mandurah as early! as 2007. It will leave the
current Armadale at Kenwick and head down thru the suburbs of Thornlie,
Canning Vale and South Lake to the Kwinana freeway and then head down the
median strip. Such a route will force the govt to call tenders for the $100
million extensions of said freeway to Mandurah from Kwinana.
Rockingham may be by passed but if the money tree produces an extra $143
million then the line will be tunnelled into Rockingham city.
The opposition reckon the line won't be finished until 2020! -will we still
be around then?
But wait? where do they get the money??sell off a public utility of course,
in this case the local Gas company.
Further extensions of the Northern line to eventually Yanchep there will be
a 120 kilometre line with the 82km line from Perth to Mandurah taking 60
minutes.
Trains to be used on the railway are expected to be next generation vehicles
capable of speeds of up to 125kmh.
There are now 48 2 car sets in service with the final delivery of the new
sets from Maryborough. It has made no difference as the poor punters are
still squashed in like sardines (as observed from my comfortable road motor
as the sardine cans zoom past me on the parking lot which masquerades as the
freeway).
It would appear Mr Court will have to plant another money tree in his garden
to pay for more EMUs to cater for the burgeoning population in the northern
suburbs let alone EMUs for the Mandurah line.
By the way there is a election next year so the pork barrel has been rolled
out early.
Stay tuned, there could be some interesting developments over the next few
years.
Regards
Noel Forster