❓ Question regarding the route selection for the south metropolitan railway, specifically why it deviates from Ennis Avenue and the factors considered in the decision-making process. The Minister provides a detailed explanation of the rationale behind the chosen route, citing safety, topography, urban planning, and environmental considerations.
AnsweredQoN 1013Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
(1) Why does the south metropolitan railway proceed on a separate corridor next to or within a few hundred metres of Ennis Avenue instead of this avenue’s very ample median strip? (2) Why does the rail route leave Ennis Avenue at the junction of Mandurah Road, meander through the countryside and then return to Ennis Avenue a few kilometres further south? (3) What weight was given to the extra safety hazards, the extra disruption to residents, the extra impact on landowners, the extra environmental impact, the greater loss of amenity and the higher financial cost of the decision to not combine these two major adjoining transport corridors into one and to detour through the countryside? Hon KEN TRAVERS
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(2) Why does the rail route leave Ennis Avenue at the junction of Mandurah Road, meander through the countryside and then return to Ennis Avenue a few kilometres further south? (3) What weight was given to the extra safety hazards, the extra disruption to residents, the extra impact on landowners, the extra environmental impact, the greater loss of amenity and the higher financial cost of the decision to not combine these two major adjoining transport corridors into one and to detour through the countryside? Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(3) What weight was given to the extra safety hazards, the extra disruption to residents, the extra impact on landowners, the extra environmental impact, the greater loss of amenity and the higher financial cost of the decision to not combine these two major adjoining transport corridors into one and to detour through the countryside? Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(2) Why does the rail route leave Ennis Avenue at the junction of Mandurah Road, meander through the countryside and then return to Ennis Avenue a few kilometres further south? (3) What weight was given to the extra safety hazards, the extra disruption to residents, the extra impact on landowners, the extra environmental impact, the greater loss of amenity and the higher financial cost of the decision to not combine these two major adjoining transport corridors into one and to detour through the countryside? Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(3) What weight was given to the extra safety hazards, the extra disruption to residents, the extra impact on landowners, the extra environmental impact, the greater loss of amenity and the higher financial cost of the decision to not combine these two major adjoining transport corridors into one and to detour through the countryside? Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
Hon KEN TRAVERS replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. I am advised as follows - (1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(1) The railway is located on the eastern side of Ennis Avenue rather than in its median because a high-speed railway requires all road and pedestrian crossings of the railway to be grade separated. In the case of Ennis Avenue, with existing intersections and road crossings at grade, vast changes to the road configuration would have been required to provide for grade-separated crossings. (2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
(2) The chosen alignment is better suited to the geometrical requirements of a high-speed railway when overlaid on the topography. An alignment close to the edge of Mandurah Road, south of the junction with Ennis Avenue, would have involved severance of the access to properties that front Mandurah Road and would have required construction of the railway on a high embankment with alternative grade-separated access to each of the properties. The chosen alignment also relates better to the urban development that is planned for the areas east of the lake and wetland system. (3) The alignment of the southern suburbs railway, referred to as the south west metropolitan railway in the 1999 master plan, was part of the south west corridor structure plan of 1993. A number of route alignments were evaluated prior to the selection of the present route south of Rockingham and each option considered factors including safety, impact on landowners, environmental impacts, loss of social and physical amenity, cost, patronage and public transport service potential and operational factors. The Western Australian Planning Commission, formerly the State Planning Commission, and Governments of both parties since 1994 have held the view that the selected route involved fewer safety hazards and caused equal disruption to residents on other routes and involved less environmental impact, less loss of amenity, less financial cost, greater engineering and operational attributes and better integration with existing and future land use than for other routes. The current alignment was subject to a major omnibus amendment to the metropolitan region scheme laid before both Houses of Parliament in October and November 1994 and gazetted in December 1994. The alignment south of Rockingham is basically the same as the route alignment described in the South West Metropolitan Railway Master Plan, which was publicly released by the previous Government in March 1999. In more recent times, a public environmental review process of the route of the southern suburbs railway has been undertaken and has addressed many of the issues raised in the question. In November 2003 the Minister for the Environment endorsed the public environmental review and issued ministerial statement 637, which contained the approval and environmental conditions for construction and operation of the southern suburbs railway. The PER approval for the section of railway referred to in the member’s question is for the railway alignment put forward in the MRS amendment in 1994.
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